


Hidden By Aliens

by AuthorA97



Series: Fallen Star [5]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: Alien Culture, F/M, Family Feels, How exactly does one tag a fic with Jack Harkness in it?, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Jack Harkness considers it his mission to sleep with everyone, M/M, Multi, Rift (Torchwood), Teenage Rebellion, The Hub (Torchwood), Weevils (Torchwood), mentions of abduction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2020-05-01 12:09:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 47,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19176697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthorA97/pseuds/AuthorA97
Summary: Leah Luna-Johnson has been living with humans for five years now. She has just escaped Torchwood- after the Battle of Canary Wharf. She lives with her two mums but she follows her aunt, Chloe Johnson, who works at Torchwood Three. If she happens to hear more than she should...who knows. Spin-off from Fallen Star Series.





	1. Let It Out

_ The sun was over our building, but the second sun shone in through the windows. Mother said she could see the dual Suns in my amber eyes. The sky was a beautiful deep orange, yet the color also filled me with... _ I’m trying to think of a word better than dread _. I missed the shining silver leaves. Everything looked like it was on fire. _

‘My planet’s gone. It’s dead. It burned like the Earth.’  _ A voice that was familiar yet not floated in my head. _

_ There was those voices again. The ones that got me into this mess. They’ve been there since I looked into the Schism,  _ and it looked into me. _ The more I thought about it, the more I learned, the more I  _ remembered _.  _ ‘It’s just remembering in the wrong direction.’

_ I didn’t like it in the Academy. Everyone was mean here, especially the kids. The grown-ups were stern. None of them wanted to have fun. I missed running through the fields, playing with dirt and looking up at the clouds. _

_ That wasn’t who I was anymore. I missed who I was before the Untempered Schism. _

_ “Tell us what you know.” The Lord President ordered. He looked down at me, like I was garbage. _

_ My lips clamped shut. He wouldn’t get any answers from me. The secrets will be kept.  _ ‘Silence must fall when the question is asked.’

_ “Tell us, and you can be spared.” The President pressed. “Tell us about what you saw.” He kneeled down, a scary look in his eyes. “Tell us about the Hybrid.” _

_ Not a syllable from me. I couldn’t decide whether to look at my shoes or up in his eyes. _

_ The Lord President glared down at me. I squared my shoulders, chin held up high. “As punishment for your crimes of treason, you shall be exiled. At the time of your regeneration, your memories of Gallifrey as well as the people on it will be removed. Any remnant of home, gone. You’ll forget everyone, your whole family, your whole life.” _

_ He had a sadistic glint in his eyes, making me want to back away. He knew that was what I was afraid of, losing my memories. It was a childish fear I had since first learning about regeneration. Mother had told me otherwise, but you don’t just forget your fears. _

_ I wanted to cry, scream at everyone that would hear me that this was wrong. I wanted Father to come save me, for Mother to tuck me back in bed and tell me a story. I wanted to be saved. _

_ They wouldn’t come. They abandoned me.  _ ‘You didn’t save my life. You trapped me inside it.’  _ I stayed strong, despite the coldness in this regeneration of Lord President. I couldn’t give in. Lives were at stake. He wouldn’t scare me. I refused to show him fear.  _ ‘He will not hurt me if I don’t show him fear.’

_ “Lord President-” One of the other Time Ladies tried to reason with him. _

_ The President glared at the Lady, holding up his Infinity Gauntlet. No...no the Infinity Gauntlet was something else...I always get these things mixed up... _

_ He shot her, letting her drop to the ground.  _ ‘Death is Time Lord for man flu.’  _ The President looked back to me, rolling his eyes in annoyance at being interrupted. “Now, where to send you?” _

_ “Earth.” The Visionary said. I turned to the elder looking woman in dismay. “The Star Child falls to Earth, where she will live out the rest of her days until she crumbles into dust.” _

_ I turned to the President, horror in my eyes. “You can’t send me there! The humans, Mother told me stories of them! They’ll kill me, then do it again before I can regenerate!” _

_ This answer was all the President needed. I was on Earth before the second sun set in the Gallifreyan red sky... _

‘The second sun would rise, and the mountains shined...’

 

==HBA==

 

I woke up with a scream.

Latshaw was instantly at my side. “Leah, Leah, it’s okay. You’re okay.” 

“N-no!” I panicked, my breathing speeding up in panic. “No this isn’t right! I- I can’t do this!”

Latshaw held a flat palm out towards my hearts. “Leah. You need to calm down.”

“I can’t!” I gasped, clawing at my shirt to get to my chest.

Latshaw took my wrists in his hands. He held tight. “Leah. Listen. I need you to focus. Take a deep breath for four seconds.”

Shaking, I followed the instruction.

“Good. Now, hold it for seven seconds.”

I did so.

“Then let it out for eight seconds.” The vampire instructed.

Shaking much less, I obeyed the command.

He continued instructing me on the breathing. In, holding, out. For ten minutes we did this. My breathing was long calmed by then, taken instead by sobbing. Latshaw pulled me in a for a hug. He let me sob out onto his chest, letting loose what felt like centuries of held-onto pain.

I missed my home- both of them. The one on Gallifrey that I had been banished from, given the additional punishment of memory removal when I regenerated. Meaning that the version of me that saved me? She had no idea I had ever been there. She would forget all about that awful day. Anything and everything to do with it- gone, as if it’d never been.

She would forget my human family too. The Luna-Johnsons, Mom and Mum. She would forget their kindness. How they welcomed me into their home, after Aunt Chloe brought me to their home. 

_ She wouldn’t know. _

_ Why...why did they have to do that to me?! _

What I did wasn’t even that bad- just hid a very old, ancient prophecy from them. Why was that a crime? Prophecies aren’t meant to be shared so openly. Not in the way the Council was demanding of us- of me.

I’m just a kid.

Why? Why am I suffering for this ridiculous crime? It’s not even a crime! Keeping quiet to keep peace  _ shouldn’t be a fucking crime! _

I would never see my family again. Gallifrey would be forever lost to me. Never again would I see my mother or father, my cousins, my aunts or uncles. If I even somehow managed then my future self would not have any clue who they were to her.

Earth would be all that we had. And if what I just saw meant anything, it’s that I would lose Earth too.

This, I all cried out onto Latshaw’s shoulder.

Heh. A Time Lady, crying on the shoulder of a vampire. Who would have thought?

By counter of before, I would never know what Latshaw did that endeared my future self to her. Which I guess is the struggle of knowing your future self’s friends. You never know the shared history, shared loss, shared jokes. You were just a stand-in, really.

Soon my tears ran out. The crying was going on, still. Silent sobs screeched out into his shoulder. Through all of it Latshaw refused to loosen his hold even a little. He was rubbing his hand on my back, the other holding my shoulders. 

Latshaw squeezed my shoulder. “It’s okay, kid. You’re alright. It’s okay to let it out.”

I sniffled, hiccuping sobs out. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s an understandable reaction. It’s been a fucked up day.” Latshaw assured me.

To be fair, it had been. We’d just escaped from Torchwood- surrounded by Cybermen on all sides as well as Daleks in the sky. This wasn’t an easy day. That doesn’t make me feel less shitty nor less emotional.

“Yes. Yes and I hate it.” I whimpered. “I...I want to go home. I want my moms. This...I can’t do this.”

“We’re surviving.” Latshaw reminded me.

“Until when?” I snapped. “How much longer? How are we not  _ home yet _ ?!” My legs were starting to, well, not work, from the emotional pain.

Latshaw let us fall to the ground. He held me close, while I let go. “Because your family has gone through extreme lengths to be kept hidden.” He explained. “Not even Terra knew where they’d gone.”

I took a bracing breath. 

_ Terra _ .

_ Terra, the Time Lady. _

Because...because she got to be.

Because I clearly wasn’t good enough to be one anymore...

 

==HBA==

 

It took another two weeks getting back to Cardiff.

Only two days after that to find...to find my family.

Multiple hotels or motels, hiding to avoid cameras, a ridiculous amount of running. Latshaw always kept up the pace. He was somehow always able to get food for us. Us. Because I knew enough about vampire lore to know that...that they didn’t eat the things Gallifreyans or humans ate.

He-thankfully-maintained such a schedule that I had no idea when he ever ate.

Because of course he had to eat sometimes...

Otherwise he would-

He would-

Alright so I was hesitant to go home.

You would think after all this time that I would be eager to return home. Why was I so wrecked with nerves?

This was the closest I would ever have to a home for...who knows how long.

_ “Tell me...what would be the point?” _

_ “All it would be was a sword hanging over our heads-” _

I shook my head, trying to push away the voices. They always left me feeling chilled-

_ “It feels weird. Like I’ll never be cheerful again.” _

Course, they also got worse when I was...highly anxious.

Latshaw had found my human parents in a motel. They had purchased the room under fake identities, using cash. They had been here since the Dal-

-since the Cybermen flooded the streets.

Latshaw assumed they went hiding from the ghosts.

I knew they were hiding from Torchwood.

A quick search had found the room they were renting.

I glanced over my shoulder. Latshaw was hiding at the end of the hall, near the steps. He stood vigil, reminding me of a Centur-

_ “...my favourite topic at school. Invasion of the Italians...” _

It just reminded me of something.

He continued standing there. Not encouraging me to step forward, nor to step away.

I could knock on the door-

_ “He will knock four times” _

-or I could just go-

_ “-like the walls aren’t even there-” _

-and he wouldn’t cast judgement on either choice.

Latshaw was...nice like that.

It seemed that the world was tired of my waiting, as I stood there in front of their door. It opened up to reveal Mom.

Oh she looked exactly the same. Her hair had grown out a bit, stretching into frayed burnt brown curls beyond her shoulders. She was dressed in a baggy blue sweater from her college- she loved that thing, wore it all the time no matter how much paint she’d gotten on it over the years.

“I’ll be back in a bit with fo-” She stopped short when her body realized there was something in her way. Her brown eyes widened in recognition.

My chin trembled. Tears that I had kept in were beginning to fall. “Mom.”

Thelma Luna-Johnson’s jaw dropped. “Oh my god. Leah?!”

“Mom.” I fell into her arms, crying onto her chest in relief.

Thelma yelped out, holding me tighter. “Leah! Oh thank god! We thought- oh my sweet girl!” She held me so tight that it chased away the pain I felt inside. “Leanna get over here!”

“What are you on abou- _ LEAH!” _ Leanna Luna-Johnson ran to the group hug, squeezing me tighter than Thelma, which I was exactly what I had wanted for so long. Her blonde hair had been cut short- most of our hugs before would mean her hair getting in my face. “Oh thank god- thank god.”

She kept muttering that. They both did. I was surprised I heard it over my own sobbing. It was nice to finally be home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes. This story will be in the Torchwood-verse.  
> Let me explain a few things:  
> This a side-story to my Fallen Star Series. Read Child of Nowhere or The Tenth Impact if you want details. Because this story will make little sense without that.  
> Leah is a Time Lady. That’s a known fact from the start of this fic. She was banished from Gallifrey, found by Leanna and Thelma Luna-Johnson. She was abducted by Torchwood a few months before the events of Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. Her aunt, Chloe Johnson, will be another OC in this fic.  
> Get ready, folks. I don’t pull any punches where my characters are concerned.  
> AuthorA97’s Law: If a character can get whump, give them whump.


	2. Bad Christmas

The door to the motel room shut. I jumped onto a couch, curling on the seat there. Mom and Mum walked in, Mom copying me but to the bed.

Aunt Chloe came in last. She pressed her back against the door, keeping it shut behind her. “Well...we’ve had worse Christmases.”

Mum glared at her.

“Did you forget last year?” Aunt Chloe asked. “Where cousin Phil walked onto a ledge? And apparently so did twenty people on our block?”

“I remember that. But at least then nobody was shooting at us!” Mum argued.

“How was I supposed to know a literal Christmas Star was going to come down on us?” Mom argued back. “It was your sister that invited us!”

“So it was  _ me  _ then?” Aunt Chloe snapped.

Fed up, I snuck out of the room.

The fighting was so strong that I was able to leave the room with nobody noticing. They kept yelling about this trip, then onto plain old blaming. The noise followed me down the hall.

You would think that after I made it home, everything would be okay. It would be the way it was before torchwood. But it was worth. Mom and mom were arguing all the time, about a lot of random things. From coffee to tea, futbol to football, what store we should shop at.

My return himself their problem.

It had been a Band-Aid over the hole in the hull of the Titanic.

And I was scared.

Scared that I would be in a broken home all over again. That I would be part of ruining what the Luna-Johnson’s had made. Which- stars forbid- is why Terra Johnson wasn’t with them anymore.

 

==HBA==

 

I ended up outside. My perch with the roof of the building. The stars for a very bright this Christmas Eve. I mean, that didn’t make mean at peace. It showed me all that I was missing.

The lessons I’ve had, all that I have learned, to become a proper Time Lady. They taught the many names of every single star in the sky. Not just their names, but what they were referred to in this galaxy at any point in time. Oh how I loved seeing them, hearing the names of them, taking time to study the legends are their titles. 

Never thought I’d miss those lessons. Earth lessons were so  _ boring _ . I’d actually constructed a device that would project the lessons in my mind, much like some lessons on Gallifrey. It had taken work, though I’d managed it in the end. Aunt Chloe had even been able to snag something from work to enhance my own machine. 

In hindsight, that’s probably how we got caught.

“You know, it’s not safe for off-worlders today.” 

When I sighed out, a cloud of white fog fell out of my mouth into the sky.

“Not safe for off-dimensioners either.” I grumbled.

Lawrence chuckled. He sat down next to me, his legs dangling over the edge.

“Or for vampires.” I added. “You’re public enemy #1 right now.”

Lawrence made no comments against it. He turned to the sky, watching it. “At least it’s in who I am, rather than parking tickets.”

Well...that was an odd remark. Still he had a point. That’s a rather risky thing to have on anyone’s record. Besides, even then, there’s nobody who would be so ridiculous as to have  _ that _ be the reason for  _ ‘most wanted’ _ . Murder, possibly, or letting in an alien invasion.

“Your mind’s going a hundred different ways, Lee.” Lawrence commented.

“There are a hundred different stars. Why deny my thoughts the same pleasure?” I countered. 

Lawrence turned to me, a half serious look on his face. “Really, though, what’s up?”

I kept my gaze away from his. “They’re fighting again- Mom and Mum. Aunt Chloe isn’t helping at all.”

“Ah. Family domestics.” Lawrence nodded sagely. At my silence, he sighed. His own cloud of white pushing into the night air. “Well were they-”

“Have you been eating enough?” I asked him, cutting off his question. “I haven’t heard anything about people going missing and found with bite marks on their next, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.”

Lawrence grinned- hesitant. He had become slightly suspicious with my cutting him off. He was willing to drop the matter, as his answer implied. “I’ve been taking food from a blood bank. Nothing untoward. Just some healthy blackmail with a worker there, and an arrangement of twice monthly pick-ups for food. Blood doesn’t last long for vampires, even those that know how to make it last.”

“Ah.”

“It’s alright. I know most creatures have an aversion to blood feasting.” Lawrence assured. Then he grinned widely, though hiding his fangs. “Mind you some humans out there have this kink called _ vore-” _

“Nope- stop. Nu-uh.” Shaking my head, I pressed my hands on my ears. “Do not want to hear about the disgusting humans-”

“-which can be either the giver or the-”

“-ignoring you, ignoring you, ignoring you-”

“-I met one on a website-”

“I will push you off this ledge!” I warned the vampire.

He only laughed at me. 

It got me laughing too. 

Each laugh puffed out more cold air into the night. It was fun to watch, while I laughed, how the air floated off until it became nothing. The same clarity as the air around it, the f-

_ ‘-the many becoming the few, becoming the One.’ _

_ ‘Look if you’re not going to start making sense-’ _

“Lee?” Lawrence touched my shoulder.

When I came back to focus I gasped, gripping to the roof to keep from stumbling off. The memory had come in such clarity, such focus, I had seen  _ every bit _ of that room as if I stood there myself. Only...I’d never been there. Nor had I seen humans dress in such odd robes before. That one, had such burns around his eyes much less the odd contraption he’d been trapped in.

But I stood there, watching it all.

Or... _ Terra Johnson _ stood there, watching it all.

I groaned- pressing my hands to my forehead. Tension was starting to build in my mind- of the day and all that had come with it.

“You saw that ship earlier, then?”

I paused before answering. “Yes.”

“You know what that was about?”

“No.” I replied. “Why? Do you?”

Lawrence hesitated. “I heard their heartbeats earlier. The Doctor and- you know.”

“...oh.” I looked back towards the ground.

They had been in town.

They’d been in town- and I hadn’t noticed.

Just another joy of the curse of the Time Lords. They wouldn’t know me, and I wouldn’t know them. Strangers, were all we’d be to each other. Two ships passing in the night.

“Good night, Lawrence.” I climbed down to the roof. Holding my arms to get out the cold, I walked to the door. “I’m going back to the room now.”

“Hey. Leah.”

I paused.

“Just- I’ll be in Cardiff. In case you need me.” He reminded me. “You’ve got my number too.”

A Time Lady, not only taking help from a vampire but with their number on her phone? My, my, how the mighty have fallen.

“Happy Christmas.” I replied, walking inside.

 

==HBA==

 

They hadn’t even noticed I was gone.

Mom and Mum, at least.

Aunt Chloe was in the hall, pacing along the carpet. She caught sight of me, gasping out. “Leah? Jesus- are you alright?”

“Yeah.” My arms were still curled around my chest for warmth. Not that I needed much just- my insides had gone all cold. “Mind if I sleep in your room tonight? They won’t stop fighting for awhile, now.”

Aunt Chloe glanced at the door- where the faint arguings of my parents could be heard. “Course you can, Leah. Come on.” She walked up to her room across from our’s. “Happy Christmas, right?”

Glancing once at their hotel room, I hummed.

“Something like that.” I mumbled, walking in behind Aunt Chloe.

The door closed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few days late- sorry! Got caught up reading HP fanfiction!


	3. Everything Changes

There weren’t a lot of good excuses for why Chloe Johnson continued to work at Torchwood Three. None that she was willing to give to her coworkers. They assumed what they usually assumed- meaning nothing.

Chloe had moved to Cardiff not long after the Battle of Canary Wharf. The few Torchwood agents that had survived that day all either took Retcon, or moved out of the country. It was Chloe’s day off-she hadn’t needed to go in. Looking back, that might’ve been the thing that saved her life.

It had been a good life- for awhile. Nothing too wild or crazy. She had it easy. Just go to work. Do the job. Nothing wild or crazy about it.

Not even the aliens weirded her out anymore.

Well except Weevils but those freaked out everybody.

Except for Leah.

Anytime Chloe talked about the Weevils, the spottings, and near attacks on the populace of London, Leah practically melted. She would go on about the  _ ‘cuteness’ _ for ages. Chloe was convinced that Leah would find Godzille cute.

Chloe let out a sigh at the thought of her niece. In recent months- the past year, actually- Leah had been in the clutches of Torchwood One. Yvonne Hartman had kept a close watch on Chloe’s niece. All Chloe heard for months concerning proof of life was Chloe’s own continued employment. 

Torchwood hadn’t shown any kindness to aliens of the past. Chloe had heard what they had done to other aliens in the past. Hell- she’s heard about the aliens on Christmas that Torchwood had a hand in ending.

Leah had cried so hard that day. Denied it after, of course. Like any proper teenager- no matter what planet. 

Chloe wishes it had been so simple a fix that Leah had gone home. The months had been long- stressful. Leanna and Thelma fought  _ often _ . Thelma had blamed Leanna and Chloe for not keeping danger away- for bringing the danger in the first place. Leanna blamed Thelma for not watching over Leah. Leah was taken under Thelma’s watch, during an outing to a dump.

During many of those arguments, Leanna had stayed a weekend at Chloe’s place. Chloe has heard the crying for many nights.

Leah coming back hadn’t made it better. It was putting a bandaid on a crashed car. Chloe loved her sister and sister-in-law, but she could see it was wrong of them to think Leah’s Return would be a fix-all.

Worse yet, Chloe wasn’t the only one who saw that.

She was on the phone with her now.

“So you see, the device is supposed to be like...like an upgraded battery! All it would need to charge is direct microwaves. Whatever planet used them- they found a way of doing that. Or maybe it increases processing power? It makes  _ something  _ better!  We’d buy a microwave for barely anything! You do your thing, we can power your schooling-computer for life!” Chloe explained.

_ “Aunt Chloe.” _ Her niece groaned over the line.

Chloe braced herself. “Leah, it’s harmless. Honest.” 

_ “Aunt Chloe, come on.” _ Her niece pleaded, in the put upon tone of teenagers across the globe. “ _ Don’t make me the responsible one. Mom has enough on her plate as is. Why do I need to add the fact that you could be dead soon, and we won’t find your body for three days in the harbor overdosed on Retcon?” _

Chloe hesitated on her answer. “You need this device. Without a stronger battery, your mental development is gonna be slower.”

_ “No it won’t.” _ Leah countered _. “I can make things myself just fine here.” _

Chloe worried her lip. “Well...”

_ “Well what.” _

“You’ll need it when you move to Cardiff.”

 

==HBA==

 

Leah hated Cardiff. Nothing personal towards the city itself. They were lovely people, with lovely architecture and weather too. Just...Leah wasn’t happy with her being moved down here. 

Necessary all the same- Leah had seen how her human family was spiralling out. She had returned home in May, it was nearing St. Patrick’s Day. Ten months back home, she was being sent away. Like English children sent to the countryside during the Blitz.

Leah had vaguely noticed things had started falling apart. Little things- Mum stopped buying Mom’s favorite crips. Mom forgot to invite Mum to an art show. Both of them tried- apologized for the misunderstanding, rescheduling, when they caught it they corrected. But lately...they’ve been forgetting.

It hurt Leah to see them this way. Yet for all the hope she had, she could still see the truth.

It had been decided sometime after Valentine’s Day. Leah’s moms had gone out for a date. Fancy dinner, a show, some walking through a park. It was their thing. Leah stayed home to entertain herself. No dates, too busy. She had settled on catching up on the films she’d missed in her time in Torchwood Prison. There were superhero movies, along with a romance that made Leah happy-cry.

Her moms came home earlier. Halfway through the romance film. Leah heard the shouting from down the hall- she paused her film. Mum was scolding Mom about something- Mom hadn’t liked the restaurant. Before Leah could say anything to reveal her presence, Mom started shouting too.

Leah immediately went off to hide. She ended up behind a couch. It was when she settled into her hiding place that it turned into a full blown argument. Leah pulled out her phone, texting Lawrence. The vampire had kept up a string of conversation while everything fell apart behind Leah’s back.

By the end, Leah couldn’t deny it anymore.

Her parents were constantly fighting.

Not about her- but something happened while she was gone.

Her moms had found her behind the couch, silent tears on her cheeks. They knew- they knew they had to work this out.

So, again, like a child sent to the countryside during wartimes, Leah went to live with her aunt in Cardiff. Leanna and Thelma would take some time to sort this out- get counseling, and the like. Leah had gone along with it, no complaint. She likened it to the human emotion of  _ ‘shock’ _ .

That’s what Lawrence said, anyway, when Leah got her thoughts in order. By then, she was already on a bus to Cardiff.

Lawrence followed her to the town, staying as long as he could. The vampire had liked London, but he had a wanderer’s spirit. Leah could admire that. Lawrence had explained how awful his old world was, how they cut off London from everywhere else in the world. He was a caged bird no longer, who deserved the chance to fly.

Even if it meant her only friend was hundreds of thousands of miles apart from her.

Which-with Aunt Chloe working the oddest hours- meant Leah had a lot of time to herself. Leah had spent too long in solitude, too long with only soldiers as company.

Leah’s time was used up wandering the city. Chloe’s boss had her working long and odd hours, sometimes it felt like Chloe was never home. The boss gave no consideration for her sudden caregiving role. Or perhaps Chloe hadn’t mentioned it, the last time Leah had been brought up at Torchwood-

Still, it gave Leah free reign. She could ignore the alien device that Chloe had stolen- Leah wanted nothing stolen from the Torchwood thieves. 

Leah had become independent without even trying.

So independent, so curious about the world, so  _ cautious _ about her old captors...was it any wonder she’d decided to spy?

 

==HBA==

 

It had Taken a lot of thinking to find out how to spy on Torchwood. There ended up being a perfect solution that required minimal working. 

CCTV.

For a normal 15 year old, this might be more than they can chew. A Tine Lady called it _ basic _ . 

Leah had gained a tablet- a birthday present before everything fell apart. She had created a program on it that would monitor CCTV as well as police scanner’s set to find any of the qualifications of Torchwood. Weird, bizarre, otherworldly, hell even the name  _ ‘Torchwood _ ’.

If they did something, she would know.

(On the opposite, she was able to look into police cases. She let slip a few things on their computers that would move along their investigations. Nothing too major. No leaps in logic a human wouldn’t have made. Just...hints.

She was kinda flipping off the old Time Lord law of:  _ no interfering. _ )

Her tablet pinged.

Right now, Leah had stationed herself in a cafe. It rained all day, so Leah was dressed up in her warmest clothes for the weather. A grey wool sweater, dusty red scarf, worn out jeans, and black boots. It kept her warm and dry during the rain. 

She plugged in her headphones, opening the program’s app. The ping came from a police radio. A few clicks connected Leah to a security camera. She turned it towards the alleyway it was looking down. She had to adjust the angle to catch sight of the Torchwood team.

Leah-at first glance- did not like those people. Well except her aunt- by a narrow margin.

There were four of them. Leah spotted an Asian woman kneeling down, beside her an Englishman, setting herself by the head of a deadman was a dark skinned woman. Leah’s aunt was kneeling beside the Englishman. All of them were holding various forms of technology. More stolen goods from aliens, no doubt. Standing at the feet of this dead man was a guy in a tall coat. Leah thought it resembled something from World War 2.

Like she said- Leah didn’t like any of these people.

She could barely hear what was being said. The cameras of CCTV were shit at picking up sound. With an annoyed huff, Leah resigned herself to a silent viewing.

The tram conversed silently for a long moment. Leah spotted the dark skinned woman pulling out something. It was blocked by her crouched over form. All Leah could see was the reflective shine of metal.

Leah fumed at the inconvenience. 

Her rage doubled when she saw what the technology  _ did. _

First, it made the rain stop. Already a pretty weird event. A quick look outside showed Leah it was still pouring. The dead body lying on the ground? It flared to life. Leah gawked at the pale body, twitching and squirming. 

Leah was disgusted.

She was horrified.

Leah was stuck staring, unable to look away. She made herself watch as those people actually  _ talked  _ to it! It was  _ disgusting _ ! It was  _ unnatural _ !

_ What’s dead should stay that way _ .

And that was coming from a Time Lady.

What’s worse was the Torchwood team was  _ speaking _ with it.  _ Casually _ , by the look of it. Leah was struck by the idea that her aunt was part of something so- so-  _ so- _

At the same time Leah was having this internal crisis in a cafe, the Torchwood Three team were still talking to the dead guy. The conversation went nowhere for the two minutes the body was ‘alive’. It fell back into the dark skinned woman’s arms, dying it’s final death.

Leah came back to focus to see the leader- the one in the blue long coat- that he was looking up at the building beside them. Leah could tell it was a parking garage, nothing odd happening there.

But then the man turned to the camera. Her camera. He waved at it. He mouthed something- it took Leah a second to understand it. When she did she was startled.

_ “And you? Got an opinions here?” _ The man had mouthed to her.

He knew she was there.

Leah reset the camera then logged out from it. She sat in her seat, a sinking swirling feeling in her belly. It made her hearts race.

In fear or in excitement, she had no clue.

 

==HBA==

 

She was lying in bed when her aunt came home. Leah rarely needed to sleep- even then, she slept with lights on. Otherwise her bedroom was too much like her old cell.

Chloe walked up to her bedroom door. She stopped herself from knocking on Leah’s door. She’d let her niece sleep.

 

==HBA==

 

Leah had added the term as a precaution. Her tablet would notify her if it came up- which she doubted.

It technically hadn’t.

Just the image had pinged up at something  _ Torchwood _ -y.

A Weevil had popped up.

Leah gawked at it. 

_ It was so cute! _

She was only able to get a view for ten seconds when the video feed cut off. Leah quickly searched her tablet for the location of that. All that popped up was the address of a hospital.

She rushed back the way she came on the street. She was gonna see that Weevil or what was even the point of anything?

To her eternal disappointment, she got to the hospital too late. She watched the truck for Torchwood Three drive away. She paid no mind to the policewoman running off after it. 

Leah wondered why she bothered anymore. She was never gonna see a Weevil in real life was she?

 

==HBA==

 

Torchwood popped up once more, not even a full day later. 

This one had actually been a common pop-up over the past month. Leah had written it off, mainly. It was just a pizza delivery. How plain was it that they ordered pizza under the name Torchwood?

Leah thought it was a major breach in security. She could think of a hundred different ways to sneak into the building.

If she wanted to sneak in.

At all.

Which she didn’t.

No sir.

Not her.

She was a good kid, raised by asshole Time Lords then good humans.

She wouldn’t stoop so low as to-

Leah was already walking towards the pizza place.

 

==HBA==

 

Leah was really good at tech.

Like, really good.

She wasn’t a prisoner of Torchwood just because she was an alien.

Right now, she held in her hands a bug. Well it had been a child’s toy- one of those animatronic bugs that buzzed around like it was alive until you turned it off.

She’d made it  _ better. _

Really these humans- so clever. They could make these tiny little things, give them a semblance of life just to amuse the little kids. 

Fascinating.

But Leah could do  _ better _ .

On these tiny little bugs- barely an inch long- she had installed a camera. Along with a microphone. After stealing some of the tech around the city, she had made a bunch of tiny little bugs (pun intended) ready for use.

She donned a disguise. Nothing fancy, just a hat and a pair of costume glasses. She changed her style, just enough that if anyone who knew her spotted her they would question if she was really herself. Humans were clever, yes, but sometimes they could be easily directed towards stupidity.

She went into the pizza store. “Hello. I’m here for the delivery for Torchwood?”

The worker there hadn’t even blinked. He just handed Leah the two pizzas, then sent her on her way.

She stopped at a bench, sneaking a bug into each box. She would drop these off at Torchwood, then make her escape. The bugs would sneak out when safe- she gave them just enough sentience for that  _ (okay it had been an accident but she was working on that)  _ alone- 

“Oi! Hold it!” Someone called out.

Leah tensed. She cautiously turned around, spotting a woman rushing towards her.

“I need those.” The woman pointed to the pizzas.

Leah’s mind scrambled for a second. “No. I’m delivering them.”

“Those for Torchwood, yeah? I need them.” The woman pressed.

Leah panicked. She feared that this was another agent of Torchwood. One that hadn’t been there in her other sightings. She was grateful she’d donned the disguise. Oh stars- had her aunt seen her? Was she exposed?

She handed off the pizzas to the woman, not wasting time wondering when she could be running.

It was only when she reached a cafe two blocks away that she allowed herself to relax. If she were being followed, she would have noticed them by now. Leah went inside, going in to order a drink with on hand cash. It would hopefully calm her nerves, something warm and soothing.

She sat herself down, trying to calm the rushing of her hearts. Her tablet pinged. She remembered that the bugs had still been active.

Leah pulled out the tablet along with headphones. She put on her headphones, listening in as if her entire life depended on the words over the speakers. With her history, it probably was.

Laughter came out over the speakers.

Leah was confused. She hadn’t heard any sort of joke. Yet, laughter?

“ _ I can’t do this. I’m sorry. I’m rubbish. I give up.” _ A man’s voice went off.

_ “He set me off.” _ Laughed a woman.

_ “You can’t blame me for that! I wasn’t even looking at him funny _ !”

Leah tensed at the voice of her aunt.

_ “Well,  _ that _ lasted nought point two seconds.” _ Another woman scolded. 

_ “Hmm. She’s actually carrying pizza.”  _ That same man noted with delight.

_ “I’m- I can’t-” _ It was her. That woman that took the pizzas! She hadn’t worked for Torchwood?

_ “Come on.”  _ An American accented voice remarked, in a tone that implied they’d ruined his fun. “ _ She was gonna say here’s your pizza, and I was going to say, how much? And she says, oh, whatever, twenty quid, and I say, ooo, I don’t have any money. I was working on a punchline. I’d have got there. But it would’ve been good.” _

Leah rolled her eyes. 

_ “There’s your pizza. I think I’d better go.”  _ The woman stated.

_ “I think we’ve gone past that stage.”  _ The American countered.

_ “You must’ve been freezing out there. How long were you walking around? Three hours?” _ The serious woman asked.

_ “You could see me?”  _ The pizza woman questioned.

Leah tensed. Her eyes glanced at the cameras in the store, paranoid.

_ “And before we go any further, who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?”  _ The American asked.

_ “Oh yeah, that’d be me. Sorry I’m a twat.”  _ The laughing man admitted without any remorse. 

“ _ That man at the hospital, that porter, what happened to him?”  _ The pizza woman asked. Leah listened closer. She hadn’t known about a body- just the Weevil. “ _ That was real, wasn’t it. He was attacked.” _

_ “He’s dead.” _

_ “But there’s no one gone missing.” _

_ “We took the body, retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a false witness who saw him leaving the hospital, giving him an alibi for the next forty eight hours, so when his body’s pulled out of the docks next Tuesday night, he’s only been missing for three days.”  _ Explained the woman who had laughed earlier.

“ _ He was murdered.”  _ Pizza woman deadpanned.

_ “Yes.” _

_ “And you covered it up.” _

_ “That’s my job.” _

_ “Actually, it’s my job.” _ Aunt Chloe pointed out.

_ “Semantics.” _

Leah felt something cold stick in her gut. She knew Torchwood was an awful job. She hadn’t liked the idea of covering up a death- by alien or human hand. She’d been raised on this planet by a police officer- covering up a crime went against what Leanna had taught her.

_ “And that other man, John Tucker? Last night in the alleyway, I saw you.”  _ The pizza woman questioned on.

That cold feeling grew. She could still remember the feeling of watching that dead man come back, of the shock there.

“ _ And what did you see?”  _ The American asked.

_ “You revived him.” _

_ “No. What did you see?” _

_ “You resuscitated him.” _

_ “No. What did you see?” _

_ “You brought him back to life.” _

_ “Yeah.” _

_ “Who are you?” _

_ “Torchwood.” _

_ “What’s Torchwood?” _

_ “You’re standing in it.”  _ Chloe told her.

_ “And what happens to me? I’m police.”  _ The woman stated. Leah was shocked. And concerned. Someone in the police knew everything? Had been following Torchwood? “ _ Constable Gwen Cooper. You can’t do anything.” _

_ “Right then, PC Cooper. Do you want to come see?”  _ The American offered.

“ _ See what?” _

_ “You saw the murder. Come and see the murderer.”  _ The American offered.

_ “Go with him.”  _ The serious woman encouraged.

_ “What is Torchwood? Who are you? What is this place?”  _ Constable Cooper asked.

There was a loud screech over the speakers. Leah winced, nearly taking off the headphones.

“ _ What was  _ that _?”  _ The constable yelped.

_ “Pterodactyl.” _

_ “I call him Joey.” _ Chloe grinned.

“ _ Are you coming?”  _ The American asked.

Leah heard nothing after. She took a deep breath, taking off the headphones. There had been a lot to unpack there. A lot she already figured out, from experience with Torchwood before. A lot was new- startling. 

She heard murmurs from the headphones. She quickly put one against her ear. The bugs- according the her tablet- had left the pizza box. They were observing the Torchwood base unseen.

“ _ Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper.”  _ The American introduced.

_ “Doctor Owen Harper, thank you.” _ The laughing man from earlier corrected.

“ _ Toshiko Sato, computer genius. Suzie Costello, she’s second in command.  Chloe Luna, she’s our human resources department. And this is Ianto Jones. Ianto cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time.” _

_ “I try my best.” _ A new voice spoke. Leah reasoned this was Jones.

_ “And he looks good in a suit.” _ The American complimented. 

_ “Careful. That’s harassment, sir.”  _ Jones warned in a tone that made it moot.

_ “You like it. _ ” Chloe pointed out.

_ “But why are you telling me their names?”  _ Constable Cooper asked. “ _ I’m not supposed to know, am I. This is classified, isn’t it?” _

“ _ Way beyond classified.”  _ The American answered.

Leah had the terrible feeling she was right. That they wouldn’t let the Constable leave.

“ _ Then you shouldn’t be telling me. What are you gonna do to me?” _

“ _ What do you imagine?” _

_ “Well, I’ve seen too much. Your names and everything, and the Weevil.”  _ Constable Cooper pointed out. Leah raged.  _ She  _ had gotten to see a Weevil  _ in person _ and Leah hadn’t? The insult. “ _ And you can dump a man in the water and lie about his death.” _

_ “Okay.”  _ The American- who Leah still had no name for, as it hadn’t been mentioned  _ anywhere _ in her searches- replied. “ _ Tosh, finish that calibration tomorrow morning. Owen, first thing, get a hold of Chandler and Bell, cos I think they’re lying. Ianto, if he needs back up, then you’d better be on standby. Chloe, sweetheart, you know I love you but could you  _ please  _ go mane sure the Weevil’s will be sedated through the night? I don’t want to come in tomorrow to find it broke out. Suzie, I know it’s a pain in the ass, but I need the costing on the glove research. And as for you, you’re coming with me. This way.” _

Leah’s stomach was about to come up through her mouth. 

_ “I’m getting tired of following you.” _

_ “No, you’re not, and you never will. Stand on here. Come on, next to me.” _

Leah sat up, curious. She checked her tablet, assigning one of them to follow after them. If they tried to kill her, Leah wanted it on record.

“ _ Good night!” _

_ “Later!” _

_ “Tomorrow!”  _ Chloe called out as she left work.

Leah wasn’t even thinking about being home her aunt to see. All she thought about was Constable Cooper.

_ “Now, you came in through the front door. Let’s take the scenic route.” _ The American offered.

She listened as metallic noises went off. A bug followed after the Constable and the American.

“ _ But, but they can see the lift.”  _ Leah thought to use the CTV, but stopped when she remembered Torchwood had used them to spy on the Constable. She could get caught from that. “ _ Why aren’t they? I mean, we are right out in the open. They can see everything.” _

_ “Do they look like they can see us?” _

_ “No, but look at us. We couldn’t be any more public.” _

“ _ Hello! Hey, you there, hello!”  _ The American called out. No reply came.

Had...had they gone  _ outside?  _ Leah was floored. They couldn’t have- not so fast. Nor do public. Unless...yes! If those mechanical noises were for an elevator!

“ _ It’s called a perception filter.”  _ Leah tensed. “ _ He can sort of see us, but we don’t quite register. Just like something in the corner of your eye. It only works on this exact spot. Step off. Hi! Nice night. Oh. And lo, we are perceived.” _

Something in Leah’s chest went  _ ping _ in grief. Perception filters were the  _ glory  _ of her people. They used them on so many things but one notable invention-

“ _ How does it work?” _

_ “No idea. We know how to use it, not how it happens. But if I were to guess, I’d say that there was once a dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit placed right on this spot which welded its perception properties to a spatio-temporal rift.” _

A time travel capsule. Leah wondered if it was the infamous obsolete Type 40-TT. Because, if there had indeed been a spatial-temporal rift, it would be the perfect place to-say- refuel a TT capsule. It would be reasonable that the capsule left some itself behind in the charge. More so if something had been suspected to happen.

Leah had yet been taken when she heard about lightning and earthquakes around Cardiff, two years ago. If she were a betting human she would say it happened on the exact spot the American stood right now. 

_ “But that sounds kind of ridiculous. Invisible lift has got more of a ring to it, don’t you think?” _ The American brushed aside. Never mind he was killing Leah with bittersweet nostalgia. 

“ _ But hold on. If no one can see it when the lift’s coming up, there’s a bloody big hole in the floor. Don’t people fall in?” _ The Constable questioned.

“ _ That is so Welsh.” _

“ _ What is?” _

“ _ I show you something fantastic. You find fault.” _

As they walked away, Leah had a thought as the bug followed after them.

He hadn’t said  _ no _ .

 

==HBA==

 

Leah was still sitting in the cafe when it happened.

When the American revealed that Torchwood had worse tools in their belt then a glove to bring back the dead.

He explained a lot of Torchwood to the Constable, this was true. They hadn’t revived a deadman to solve a murder- they’d done it to test the glove. They hadn’t discovered aliens recently- it was a long time running and then were better at  _ stopping them. _ Torchwood had four offices in the UK  _ (One ended at Canary Wharf, Two was in Glasgow run by a Strange man. This was Three. Four had gone missing- probably will be found someday) _ . Torchwood Three’s job- beside picking up the residual slack of Torchwood One- was to keep the rift’s washed out contents contained.

But then he revealed just  _ why  _ he was telling her everything. 

Memory loss drugs.

An amnesia pill. The American- Jack Harkness, a fake name revealed even during the conversation- had made it himself. Touched up with denial and Retcon.

The Constable would wake up in the morning with no memory of Torchwood.

All because of the ‘ _ Captain’ Jack Harkness _ .

Leah would rather be vivisected than take that monstrosity of chemicals. 

“ _ You bastard.”  _ The Constable growled at him.

“ _ Language! Nice knowing you, Gwen Cooper. But I’ve got a date waiting for me.” _

Leah tapped on her tablet. The second bug had stayed at their headquarters- finding itself completely comfortable in a new home. It apparently went off on its own mission- to see the Weevil.

It had been a  _ brilliant  _ idea to add cameras to them. Though due to the technology Leah had on hand, it would really only work as a small camera for close-ups. Lucky it had a whole night to play with everything. 

But first Weevils.

The bug snuck down to the dungeons. It might have followed Jack Harkness and Constable Cooper down there.

Leah observes the captured video of the captured Weevil. She allowed herself a moment to bask in the cuteness. When the moment was over, she observed. 

They were indeed humanoid. Humanish if Leah had to say. She had seen those mandible teeth before, in her lessons as a girl.

_ ‘Perhaps the 189th century?’ _ Leah theorized.  _ ‘After the humans bred with the Clov’sens? They had mandibles like that. Humans never really shook off the xenophilia from their 4000’s.’ _

As she read, the hair on her neck stood up. Leah brushed it away as the cold night air inside. It came to her that she was inside- There’s wasn’t any cold night air inside. Also, this feeling wasn’t a chill.

It was growing stronger.

Leah glanced towards the door to the cafe. She saw nothing. That didn’t stop the feeling of  _ wrongness  _ from closing in on her.

She checked the first bug. It showed only darkness from the camera. No sound either. Just an active bug, collecting nothing. She checked it’s location-

Three blocks away.

Headed her way, by the direction.

Leah guesses the Captain had some device to track her location from the bug. She hadn’t thought it was possible- even if he had spotted the bug, she hadn’t left it unprotected. There were  _ layers  _ upon  _ layers _ of encryption on it! If anyone  _ could  _ break it, they’d have-

A time traveler.

Could- could this  _ ‘Captain’ _ be from the  _ future _ ? It’s the only explanation she had for this anomaly!

Two blocks.

Leah gatherer up her meager belongings, rushing out of the cafe. She shifted her tablet to airplane mode- advanced, regular airplane mode was laughable- calmly walking a random direction.

That feeling of _ wrong _ doubled. She felt it everywhere- grating against her skin like- like a loofah but made out of spider legs. Leah didn’t like the feeling nor the analogy her brain had supplied.

Her phone buzzed. Leah grunted, pulling it out from her pocket. She’d only kept it on hand just in case. She saw it was her aunt calling.

“Yeah?” Leah greeted, trying not to sound tense.

_ “Hey. Just calling to ask where you went off to.” _

Leah held back a scoff. She understood the desire behind the question, just genuine concern, however Leah had been home for awhile. There wasn’t a need to constantly be worried about her. She could handle herself- if she got away from the  _ ‘Captain’. _

“Just walking around Cardiff. They added new books to the library.” Leah lied.

_ “The library’s still open?”  _ Chloe questioned, surprised.

Leah paused. “...so that’s why it’s so dark.” She continued her lie.

Her aunt laughed on the other end. Leah let out a relaxed breath she hadn’t known she had held back.

_ “Well get yourself out. I know you don’t sleep as often as me, it’d make me worry less. Besides- if you died coming home from the library post-closing, I wouldn’t stop making fun of you.” _

“Course. Be back soon.” She hung up the phone. Leah could imagine that, as she ducked into an alleyway to escape the  _ wrong _ . Regenerating into a new her body, aware that she’d died leaving a library-

_ “-destruct in two minutes.” _

_ Flashes of books- endless shelves of books- _

_ Circuitry. _

_ Flashing with sparks. _

_ The face of a little girl. _

_ “Spoilers.” _

Leah gasped back with a hand shaking her shoulder.

She wanted to go back in- if only because the  _ wrong _ was all consuming now. She nearly gagged at the first feeling of it. She realized what was causing it.

Captain Jack Harkness.

He...was  _ wrong. _

He shouldn’t- he was  _ wrong. _ Leah couldn’t come up with any other words to describe him. Jack Harkenss was an impossibility that she could bring herself to stand. No wonder she’d had a Flash.

He flashed her a smile that would send anyone down on their knees. Leah had to take a deep breath to keep herself from being sick. It set off an alarm in her head. She could feel another thing off about him. 

_ ‘52nd century pheromones.’ _ Leah realized.  _ ‘Great. Just great.’ _

“Hey there, kid. Need any help?” Captain Jack Harkness offered out his hand.

Leah flinched from it. She shook her head at him- afraid that by opening her mouth she’d puke.

“Are you sure? You took a hard fall.” Captain Jack Harkness pointed out in argument. “It knocked this out of your hands.”

He held up Leah’s tablet. She winced. Captain Jack Harkness had a glint of victory in his bright blue eyes.

“Did you want this back?” Captain Jack Harkness reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out one of Leah’s bugs.

Leah cowered, knowing she was defeated. She wouldn’t go back to Torchwood. She wouldn’t! Especially if it was run by  _ him. _

“Clever little bug.” Captain Jack Harkness noted. He gave up any pretense of helping Leah stand. He leaned against the wall across the entrance to the alley. He let out a dry chuckle. “Equipped with high tech microphone and a pin camera. You know, it was actually trouble to get this thing to show me home.”

Leah looked at the small bug, her hearts pouring out for it. Him? Her? Them? Well technically it was neither so Leah guessed _ ‘them’ _ -

“Now. How’d you find out about Torchwood?” Captain Jack Harkness asked. “Cause most people don’t send in tiny little spy bugs on harmless constables.”

_ ‘I was their prisoner for five months.’ _ Leah thought, with full hate. She glared at Captain Jack Harkness with that hate.

He seemed to take no offense to it. He tucked the bug back in his coat pocket. Leah momentarily mourned the fact she hadn’t even given her bugs names. What kind of a mother was she? First she let them get captured, then she didn’t know their gender, and now she didn’t know their names? Rubbish.

But the Captain continued on with his conversations, possibly fully aware of how Leah was losing her mind from anticipation and fear. “So how about we continue our conversation someplace nice?”

The exiled Time Lady tried to think of a solution. Come on, it surely can’t be  _ that _ hard to escape a man from the 52nd century, walking anomaly that was giving her a regeneration worthy headache, head of a group that would sooner kill her than use her.

She refused to be a prison again. 

Refused to be  _ their  _ prisoner again.

She kicked at his legs, causing the man to drop. She leapt over him, rushing from the alleyway. The Captain was fast- her senses were dulled by the  _ wrongness- _ he grabbed her arm.

Leah decided to go for broke. She screamed out. “ _ HELP! HELP ME! HE’S TOUCHING ME!” _

Captain Jack Harkness tried to keep a stronger grip. He didn’t bother searching the street, knowing the real problem would be containing her. It was something like a miracle  _ (or a colossal disappointment in the people of Cardiff) _ that no one had come to her aid. “Come on! Don’t make this hard-”

_ “I AM BEING ASSAULTED _ !” Leah screamed into the night.

Captain Jack Harkness reached up, clamping a hand over her mouth. Leah bit his hand, finding herself holding back the sick in her throat. As if being near him wasn’t bad enough, touching him felt like a whole other kind of death. She was surprised her skin wasn’t glowing.

“I’m not going to hurt you!” Captain Jack Harkness insisted. Leah collapsed, suddenly, just on the edge of passing out. “It’s alright. We’re just going to talk-”

“It’s  _ never _ talk with you.” Leah spat. But her mouth was still covered, so it came out all muffled between Captain Jack Harkness’ hand. She scratched at his hand, trying to pry it off her mouth.

It was awful- all was lost. Leah could see the next few days, almost as if she was having a Flash but not quite. Her aunt would see her tomorrow, stuck in a cell beside the Weevil. She’d had to call her parents, tell them that Leah had been lost to Torchwood again. Her aunt would try to save her, only to be caught and killed. Or worse, made to forget that Leah had ever existed. Her moms would be made to forget too, most likely. Torchwood would decide that Leah wasn’t useful for knowledge, deciding to just cut her up into bits to feed to the Weevil instead.

To her horror, she was beginning to cry.

That painful crying that had no sounds, just burning hot tears spilling from her eyes onto the time traveler’s hand.

Captain Jack Harkness noticed as the girl went slack in his hold. More so, he noticed the tears touching his hand. He tried to look into the girl’s eyes, give her a once over to see if she’d hit something as he was pretty certain he hadn’t done anything to physically hurt her when he was hit by the look in her amber eyes.

In his mind, he flashed back to another time. A long time ago, with a girl in matching amber eyes had cried in his arms. She had begged him and cried in a way he’d never seen- never thought he’d see Terra Johnson break down so hard at the thought of Jack’s future.

_ “TJ, calm down. I'm right here, okay? I haven't  _ left  _ you. I'm not  _ gonna  _ leave you.” _

_ “You’ll leave-You’ll be angry at us.” _

_ “Not at you.” _

_ “Don’t tell me that. Don’t lie to me like that.” Terra hissed at him. Because Jack had heard her between the lines, all these weeks with her and the Doctor.  _ ‘You’ll hate me because why wouldn’t you? You’d hate the person that damned you to that awful life. You’d hate me because who would actually care about me?’

_ “I’m not lying!" Jack defended himself. Because he knew Terra too well. Knew that she would do whatever it took to stop it- and if she couldn’t do that, then she’d make his life better in the afterwards. _

_ "It’s horrible. And  _ bloody _." Terra spat the word out, like it insulted her. _

_ "So is my past." _

_ "It doesn't have to be your future. I don't want it to be your future. Please...I can't lose you too! Not like I lost Hero!” _

It had been centuries since that day, yet Jack remembered it in a sudden clarity like it was happening before his eyes.

In some ways it was.

He hadn’t a clue that the girl in his arms was the previous body of his Terra Johnson, the girl whose mind would be erased of her past in a punishment from her own species. 

Jack didn’t know.

But...if honesty is really so important...something deep inside the small remains of his soul had noticed. Something that had been stirred up by Gwen Cooper just ten minutes ago. The Constable had a passing resemblance to Terra Johnson, if she’d ever let her hair out from her headband, and she seemed to have that same want for justice that so few people had anymore.

Two utterly unique people in his life, suddenly reminding him of the Time Lady that had given a con-man a second chance in World War 2 after he’d nearly brought the apocalypse upon them.

He let Leah Luna-Johnson- past incarnation of Terra Johnson- exiled Time Lady- go.

She fell to the ground, still silently sobbing.

Not pausing as to give the Captain a chance to change his mind, Leah ran up the street. She had to get home, before her aunt worried any further.

Jack could still hear the more recent words of Terra Johnson in his head.

_ “Bye Jack. I...you were better.” _

Jack wondered if he was, looking back at his time in Torchwood. He wondered if Terra Johnson would be proud of what he’d become.

Yet remembering that conversation, Jack knew she wouldn’t.

 

==HBA==

 

When Leah made it home, she cried herself to sleep. Her aunt hadn’t noticed.

 

==HBA==

 

The next morning, Leah woke up late. She’d slept in. It hadn’t been a good sleep, mind. Full of nightmares of being a prisoner to Torchwood again.

But the first thing she did when she was aware wasn’t to activate her learning machine. It was check on Gwen Cooper.

Leah had found the police station where she worked in no time at all. In less time, she’d lied her way inside. She could see the constable, hard at work.

Then again, Gwen had a distant look in her eyes as she stared at a white board covered in evidence (specifically, at the drawing of an intricate knife)

Leah still walked up to the policewoman’s desk.

“Hello.” She waved nervously at the policewoman.

Gwen Cooper blinked awkwardly, coming back to awareness from wherever her foggy memories had taken her. “Hello. Was there something you needed help with?”

“You’ve done it.” Leah gave the constable a once over. “Have a good day.” She rushed back the way she came, leaving behind nothing but a confused constable and a tiny bug that had been named  _ Azure _ for her blue coating.

“Do I know you?” Gwen Cooper called out, getting a sense in her head that she’d seen her before. Even if only in passing, there had been a  _ memory _ there.

She got the sense that Gwen Cooper was special.

Perhaps an echo from way back when, of another Gwen that did something marvelous in Cardiff with Charles Dickens.

Perhaps an echo from her future, of a Terra Johnson that knew how  _ Everything Changes _ played out along with the rest of the season of  _ Torchwood. _

Or maybe it was just that Leah had adopted that little thing known as _ optimism. _

Who knew?

 

==HBA==

 

Azure had reported that Constable Gwen Cooper was walking very close to Torchwood Three.

Full of concern, Leah blindly raced after her.

She arrived to see Constable Cooper standing across from a dark skinned woman holding a large purse.

Leah panicked, hiding behind the giant monolith sculpture that rained down around them. She could still hear the conversation going on on the other side, thanks to Azure who had stuck on Constable Cooper like a bad penny.

“Hello again. You were right. You told Jack we should liaise with the police. I was the only one who bothered. So I was the only one who saw the report. They got a good likeness.” The woman remarked.

Leah wanted to see what was being spoken about, but feared being spotted. The only ‘likeness’ she had seen recently was the drawing of that knife at the police station. Could it be...that this woman- this Torchwood woman- had committed the killings?

“I’m arresting you for-” The Constable began, only to drag off. “How do I know you?”

“I thought you might have seen it. And that can trip the amnesia, just one specific image, if you’re clever. He said you were good.” The Torchwood woman noted. Leah wasn’t sure what the feeling in her chest was- somewhere between proud warmth and fearful cold. “Anyway. It’s not much good now, I can’t really. But you’re gonna put up a fight. So I’ve got...Er, hold on. Sorry.” The woman apologized, sounding more emotional.

Constable Cooper gasped.

“There. That’s better.” The woman remarked, in a much more contained voice.

“Put it down.” Constable Cooper warned.

_ ‘Oh, so it’s probably a gun then. _ ’ Leah realized.

“You had to come back.” The Torchwood woman spat.

“Put down the gun.” Constable Cooper warned again.

“You’re the only one who can make the link. Well, the only one in public.” The Torchwood woman went on, as if the constable hadn’t been pleading for her life. “Torchwood’s going to find out by morning, but I’ll be gone. I don’t know where. Far away. What am I going to do?” Now the woman sounded emotional, beginning to sound like she was crying. “I loved this job. I really loved it. And now I’ve got to run. Oh, Christ. How can you do any other job after this one?”

“Please, put down the gun.”

“Cos it gets inside you. You do this job for long enough, and you end up thinking, how come we get all the Weevils and bollocks and shit? Is that what alien life is? Filth? But maybe there’s better stuff out there, brilliant stuff, beautiful stuff. Just they don’t come here. This planet’s so dirty, that’s all we get. The shit.”

Leah felt for this woman- for only a moment. This planet had been marked by her own people as wasteful, full of idiots who spread through time and space like cockroaches. Leah herself had been exiled here because her people saw no greater insult.

She saw it- saw  _ them _ differently. Humans were capable of such greatness. Yet there were like Voldemort in a way. Those things were great, terrible, but great.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I wish I could forget.”

_ ‘No you don’t. People always say that until they actually forget.’ _

“Why did you kill those people?”

“For the glove. Just stay where you are.” The Torchwood woman warned.

Leah thought she heard something mechanical on the other side- the feeling of  _ wrong _ came back.

Captain Jack Harkness was coming up. From that impossible lift.

“I needed the bodies. That’s how it works, violent death.” The Torchwood woman carried on with her explanation, as if it truly justified her actions. “And it was so easy. To bring them back, I’d position myself behind the head, so they’d never see me twice.”

“You killed three people.” Constable Cooper accused, as disgusted as Leah felt.

“It was the only way. The more I use the glove, the more I control it.”

“I don’t understand. What glove? Where have I seen you before?”

“If I can get enough practice, then think what the glove could do. If I could get it to work all the time, on anything, beyond the two minutes, if it could work permanently, it could  _ resurrect _ .” The Torchwood woman argued.

Leah had seen the effects of  _ one _ resurrection gauntlet. Wielded by what many of her people considered to be the best of them. Hadn’t they seen? He used it for wrong.  _ Using it _ had been wrong. No one should be able to bring back the dead.

“Resurrection on demand for the whole world, isn’t that good? Isn’t it, though? Well, that’s what I’ve been working for, all day and all night. The rest of them go swanning about, but I’m working. You’ve got to get inside this stuff. Surrender yourself to it. I did, with the knife and the glove, and that’s why the perception filter isn’t gonna work on me.”

There was a gunshot.

The  _ wrongness _ grew stronger.

Leah couldn’t stop herself. She peeked around the grand structure. She was mindful not to be spotted by the gun wielding psychopath.

Sure enough- Captain Jack Harkness lay on the concrete, dead. A bullet hole in his head.

Yet the  _ wrongwrongwrongohgodI’mgonnabesick _ didn’t go away.

Leah watched, walking further out from her safe perch. She could see Constable Cooper, who was shocked over the arrival of Captain Jack Harkness and his subsequent death.

“What? Who is he? Where did he come from? What have you done?” The Torchwood woman moved her gun towards Constable Cooper. Leah tensed, still out of her sight. “Please don’t.”

“I can’t let you go.” The woman explained.

“Please.” The constable begged. She suddenly noticed Leah behind the mad lady with a gun. She was silently begging the girl not to do anything stupid, nothing that would get her killed too.  _ Oh god she was going to die wasn’t she- _

Leah’s mind scrambled for something to do.

“I’ve got to. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ve got to. I’ve got to. I’ve got to.”

Before Leah could try her first option _ (rushing up to the woman, jumping on her back, and wrestling the gun from her hand _ ) Captain Jack Harkness stood up on his feet.

He spotted Leah easy enough. He gave her a too bright smile, adding a secretive wink. He got up to his feet.

The bulletwound was still in his head.

Leah gawked.

So... _ that _ was his impossibility.

That’s what was so wrong with him.

He was a _ fact. _

A fixed point in time.

Something that was always supposed to be there.

And as such, he couldn’t die.

Leah pitied him.

What a dreadful existence.

“Put down the gun.” Captain Jack Harkness ordered.

The Torchwood woman turned around, gawking at her boss. Gawking also slightly at the second witness to this whole thing standing behind him.

It would be of interest to note that- through her shock- Gwen Cooper thought that Captain Jack Harkness had placed himself in a spot between Suzie and Leah. Almost like a protective stance.

“Suzie, it’s over. Now come with me.” Captain Jack Harkness told her.

Yet, instead, Suzie put the gun beneath her chin.

Another gunshot went off.

Leah flinched. Both at the noise, and the gross  _ splat _ as Suzie’s corpse fell to the ground.

“I remember.” Constable Cooper stated, numd.

Captain Jack Harkness turned to her.

“I remember.” She repeated, speaking through her growing tears.

Captain Jack Harkness nodded. The clever ones always remembered- though not always in such a dramatic instance. He turned behind him, seeing Leah still watching it all.

He didn’t bother asking if she was okay. The teenager was clearly shuddering, curling her arms around her chest. She was staring at Suzie’s corpse not in pity or fear, but rather in acknowledgement. She had no sympathy for the woman who had thrown herself into the dark morale of Torchwood.

Jack would remember the hate in her eyes from the night before, would remember the murmured phrase again his palm. He had understood that this girl had no love in her heart for Torchwood. Why should she? When all she’d seen from them was the darkness that had always been there since the start.

_ No wonder Terra hadn’t wanted this for him. _

“Why did you come back?” Jack asked her.

The exiled Time Lady looked to Constable Cooper, who was also watching in confusion.

Sudden recognition. “You’re that girl. You came by the station. And- and that girl, with the pizza boxes.”

Leah gave a small nod, glancing back at Captain Jack Harkness. 

He understood. “Another bug?”

Leah nodded. 

Jack grinned, proud. “Smart.”

If Leah smiled, she’d deny it to her regeneration.

“You should go.” Jack informed, glancing down at the dead body. “Like you were never here.”

Leah stood her ground for a moment. Until she realized that sticking around would mean seeing her aunt, her aunt knowing what Leah had done. 

A smart teenager would’ve left, to avoid getting in trouble.

But Leah was intelligent.

She shook her head. She walked closer to the Captain and the Constable.

“No.” She stated. “No I won’t. I’m here, and you won’t get rid of me.”

_ Because sometimes, the only way to get rid of a rat was to get inside it’s home. _

 

==HBA==

 

When Chloe Johnson spotted her niece, the first thing she felt was confusion. Followed quickly by fear and dread.

Moreso when she was led by Captain Jack. Surely nothing good could come from being walked in by her boss into Torchwood Three. Chloe mourned the fact that her niece would be lost again- that her sister and in-law would lose their girl again. Chloe resolved herself for a fight. Jack wasn’t having her while Chloe still breathed.

But then walked in Gwen Cooper. Chloe was confused again. Hadn’t they Retcon’d her?

Then Jack explained. Suzie was dead. She had been experimenting with the glove outside of office hours, including murdering people so she could gain skill with the glove.

Jack ordered them to bring back  _ anything _ they had brought home. There would _ not _ be another Suzie.

Owen brought back a spray that- after testing some months back- let him seduce anyone who caught a whiff.

Tosh brought a device that could let you scan things at an incredible speed, then project it onto any device with a screen. 

Chloe had-under her niece’s disappointed glare- brought back a microwave looking device, that would speed up processing power. She’d brought it home the night before. Her niece hadn’t noticed.

Ianto had stolen nothing. He was in charge of putting away the Resurrection Glove, along with the knife that Suzie had used to kill all those people.

“Who’s the kid?” Owen was the first to speak up on that matter.

“Leah.” Leah answered for herself. She gave her aunt a glare not to say anything. “I watched her blow her brains out.”

Chloe winced in sympathy for her niece. She knew Leah had seen awful things, but nobody should watch someone kill themselves.

“So we’re retconning her?” Owen asked Jack.

“I would rather die.” Leah stated before Jack could say anything. She looked at Jack with a challenge in her amber eyes. _ ‘Well, will you? I dare you. Do it.’ _

Jack refused. But because he was the first ever documented _ That Bitch _ he couldn’t simply accept it without making a scene. “She’s our newest tech genius.”

Chloe gawked. “What?” She asked.

To Jack, it was a done deal. He gave Chloe a look- telling her to go along with this order. For that’s what it was, you see. “She’s a real wiz kid.” He pulled out the bug- Leah had named him  _ Salem, _ for she reasoned that bug had been a wild one. It relieved her to see he was still alive. Jack tossed the bug to Tosh.

Tosh looked over the tiny bug. She could see technical upgrades to it. If she had to guess, this thing was upgraded with the exact things to be, well, a bug. Which is what she told the group.

“I found it in a pizza box.” Jack lied. Leah’s cheeks flushed. He hadn’t found  _ Eeyore _ then. From her last check, that bug was still watching the Weevil. “Quite a little novice white hat, I reckon.”

Leah turned her head to the side, hoping none would see her suddenly pink cheeks. Chloe had noticed.  _ Words _ were going to be had in the Johnson house tonight.

“I wasn’t doing it to be nice.” Leah pointed out, trying to recover some sense of decency.

“Course not.” He gave her a chuckle. He turned back to his team. “We’ll meet back tomorrow, business as usual. Leah will come back whenever she’s let out of school.”

Leah nodded. There had been no point telling them she was homeschooled, nor that she was too _ fast _ for school. It would only cause more problems.

Owen, Tosh, and Ianto merely accepted this. Sometimes, it was hard on the parts of them that were still human to do awful things. The idea of having to kill the girl hadn’t sat well on them. They would’ve done it, but it wouldn’t have sat well.

Chloe was somewhere between scarily calm and having an aneurysm.

 

==HBA==

 

“I can’t believe you.”

“Your coworker was killing people! Don’t take the moral high ground with me!”

“It’s not like I knew about it, so don’t put it on me!”

“She left the murder weapon on her work station!”

“Don’t put every bad thing Torchwood does on me! And you’re bonkers if you think I’m actually letting you go along with this!”

“You can’t stop me.”

“Watch me! With those little spy bugs that I’m  _ confiscating!” _

“Like hell you are!”

“Your parents would-”

“-hate me if I let this  _ injustice _ go on! You lot  _ wipe memories _ from people!”

“Oh Leah-”

“You know how important memories are to me! How important _ keeping them _ is to me! How can I let you keep on working unchecked by those  _ people _ ?!”

“It’s not- we don’t do it all the time.”

“ _ Yet _ . I bet that’s what those guys in  _ Men In Black _ said when they made that memory eraser. It started off small, yeah? Like the Statute of Secrecy in the Ministry. Then got bigger and bigger, until they had to make those blinkers. How long until Torchwood makes those, Chloe? How long?”

“...you know, sometimes I hate Leanna for introducing you to justice.”

“You think Mum showed me? Nah that was Mom. With all her human pop culture movies.”

 

==HBA==

 

The next day, the sun shined brightly.

Her aunt had grounded her from the learning machine for a week. She ordered Leah had to read school books  _ the human way. _ Leah went along with it. Besides, the tablet allowed for greater ease to switch to her bugs.

Azure had stuck around on Constable Cooper, so Leah took a break from her science book to listen to the conversation. 

_ “Owen, Toshiko, Chloe, you didn’t tell them that you were shot in the head and survived.” _

“ _ You didn’t tell them either. Followed my lead. Keep doing that, and you might just get through this.” _

_ “But she killed you.” _

_ “I can’t die.” _

_ “Okay.” _

_ “But I can’t. Something happened to me a while back. Long story and far away. But I was killed, and then I was brought back to life. And ever since then, I can’t die.” _

_ “But how-” _

_ “I don’t know. One day I’ll find someone, like a certain girl- or maybe even a doctor-the right sort of doctor, and maybe they can explain it, but until then.” _

_ “Nothing kills you?” _

_ “Well, it kind of freaks people out, so, best if you don’t say anything.” _

_ “It doesn’t matter anyway. You’ll only wipe my memory again.” _

_ “Why would I do that? Torchwood’s got a vacancy. Job going spare. Do you want it?” _

_ “But, what do you need me for? Didn’t you just bring in that girl?” _

_ “Cos maybe you and Leah were right. She was watching us that night, when I took away your memory. She knew that I’d either wipe her memory, or have to kill her. Torchwood...it’s gotten bloody. It doesn’t have to be like this. We could do more to help. What do you think? Do you want to join up?” _

_ “Yeah. I do, yes.” _

Leah gave a proud smile. 

Her phone pinged. Seeing as Chloe hadn’t grounded her from phone usage, Leah picked it up. Lawrence was texting her.

_ ‘Back from the trip. Anything interesting happen?’ _

Leah laughed. _ ‘Call me. You’re not gonna believe any of it!’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave comments. They let me know y’all are reading it and liking it!


	4. Day One

_ “Tell me again how you  _ accidentally  _ get a job with the company  _ hunting you down?” Lawrence asked over the phone.

Leah hummed. She turned a page in the manual she was reading. “According to the human lore, it’s  _ identity porn.” _

She could hear the vampire’s grimace over the line.  _ “Identity porn is a sex thing. Oh fuck tell me you aren’t-” _

“No!” Leah denied, suddenly blushing. “Just-  _ no _ ! Ugh. Cultural misunderstanding!” She excused, covering her face with her hands. Even though Lawrence wasn’t in the room. “Stars, that’s awkward.”

An awkward silence followed. Leah fidgeted in her seat. She was home right now- the sun had long since set. She had everything ready for working at Torchwood, beside knowing the rules. Cooper and the others had it easy- they had more practical experience in this line of work than Leah did. All she had was technical know-how.

She’d been studying with her aunt’s police work books, and a book loaned by Ianto Jones from Torchwood. It had all the rules for the business in there. She read impossibly quick, and using the learning-machine would mean converting the books to digital first which was just as time consuming as the reading itself. Leah decided to study the human way. She’d been convinced she could do it.

Five minutes later she called Lawrence.

_ “How can they not know you’re an alien?” _ Lawrence asked, filling the awkward void that had come up.  _ “You’d think they’d have checks for that.” _

“They do.” Leah replied. “I’m avoiding the check-up, trying to find a way that my aunt can give it. She’d lie for me.”

_ “How’s that going?” _

“Well I haven’t done it yet.” Leah replied. “Considering their medical expert is a guy, I think they would let it slide. She would give a reasonable translation from my data to human terms. She won’t like it, but she knows it’s the only way to keep me alive from them.”

_ “What the hell, Johnson?” _ Lawrence said after a long pause. Leah said nothing. _ “Really. What the hell.” _

“I had to do something, Latshaw.” Leah reminded him. “They were killing people- for the science of it! They had to be stopped!”

_ “See I’d believe you if you hadn’t already told me you found out about the murders at the end!” _ Lawrence argued.

Leah slammed the textbook shut. It dropped to the floor as she stood up. “They were going to wipe her memory! They were bringing the dead _ back to life _ ! What did you want me to do? Humanity has no business playing with life or death! What’s dead should stay that way! Coming from a Time Lady, that means something!”

_ “So any human that dies should stay dead?” _ Latshaw asked.

“Yes!” Leah replied, snapping. She was about to start ranting about Captain Jack Hakrness. The Impossible Fact. The Man Who Could Not Die. The Assault On Her Senses. Time Lord’s Bane. Clearly something was wrong with him if he never died- even Time Lords changed their faces when they did it. 

She was halted in her rant, by the vampire over the line.

_ “Even the ones like me?” _ Lawrence challenged, enraged.

Leah was stunned silent.

_ “Yeah. It’s what I thought.” _

“I didn’t mean-” Leah tried but she knew it would be useless.

Lawrence hung up.

Leah grunted in disappointment. She had no idea how to backpedal from that one. She remembered lessons about the history of Rassilon, their highest President. She remembered the lessons about the Great Vampires- how they had thought to have been eradicated by Rassilon in the early times of Gallifrey.

She could barely get over her prejudice when speaking to Lawrence. How her future self managed to be in the same room as him, to befriend him too, Leah had no idea.

 

==HBA==

 

She went for her first day of work. It was a weekend, thankfully, so she didn’t have the excuse of school to hinder her.

She met with Ianto Jones, first returning the book she had borrowed.

Everything was extremely boring at first. To Leah, it was still high stakes. At any moment she feared discovery. She kept herself calm with the reminder that if she looked panicked that it would only make them more suspicious.

Her aunt hadn’t needed to volunteer for her check-up. Apparently Harper had done something to annoy Jack, so he’d been asked to work at his desk while Aunt Chloe worked. Leah let the process without protest. Chloe had already predetermined all the information she would say was baseline for Leah. Seeing as there wasn’t a chance of Leah getting hurt, there wasn’t a chance for it to come up.

The only real trouble came when Jones had Leah filling out paperwork.

“It’s blank. Do it right.” Jones told her.

“No. I filled it out.” Leah countered easily.

Jones gave her a look. “You only put in your name. And it’s fake!”

“It’s real.” Leah replied.

“Your name is  _ Leah Newblood?”  _ Jones questioned. “That’s not your name.” 

“Prove it.” Leah challenged.

Jones huffed, going over the rest of the workform. “Residence:  _ my bed _ . Telephone:  _ Nokia _ . Parent’s Names:  _ Mum and Dad _ . Their addresses:  _ graves _ . High School:  _ I’m not allowed weed _ . Age:  _ rude _ .”

“See? It’s not blank.” Leah replied. “It’s all filled out.”

Jones handed her a real blank work form. “Fill it out. Properly.”

Leah stared blankly at the Torchwood paper-pusher. She glanced at the paper in his hands. She snatched it away. “Fine.”

She quickly filled it all out again. She handed it back to Jones without any of the normal teenage human rebellion. She had filled in a lot of the data as lies again, but more plausible. The address was a PO box, the high school just said _ ‘home-schooled’ _ , the phone number was filled in properly, and she left her parents as dead with fake human sounding names.

As far as Leah knew, all the Time Lords were dead.

Minus two.

But those two were not her parents.

Jones accepted the form. He was looking at it for a second before looking back at Leah. “You didn’t change the name.”

“My name hasn’t changed since you asked last.” Leah countered. She was only cheating a little bit- skirting the rules in a way that would make the Time Lord Council roll in their graves- if they had graves.

_ Newblood  _ had indeed been a name on Gallifrey. One not common to share with outsiders. If Leah wanted to have more of home with her, could she really be blamed?

 

==HBA==

 

Her first officially work day began as most days did: with something being on fire. 

Leah had expected nothing less from Torchwood. Her aunt had driven out with the team, leaving Leah with Jones at the Hub.

Lucky for her, Leah still had one of the bugs  _ (Azure, such a loyal thing) _ on Constable Cooper. Well, Agent Cooper. Were they called agents? Leah should look that up.

She set herself up on the couches, connecting Azure to her tablet once again. 

_ “Simple locate and clean up operation.” _ The Captain explained to his team. “ _ Find that meteorite before anyone else gets their hands on it. Good to see you, by the way.” _

_ “Tosh, you found it yet?” _ Owen Harper asked.

_ “You got enough kit?” _ Cooper asked, snarking.

_ “Basic tracking and surveillance. Got the crash site.”  _ Tosh Sato answered. “ _ With this we can tap into CCTV networks, national databases.” _

_ “Is this CrimInt?”  _ Cooper asked. “ _ This is the police computer system. You shouldn’t have this.” _

_ “Might wanna stop saying you and start saying we.” _ The Captain corrected.

_ “If she lasts that long.” _ Her aunt threw in.

_ “I’m not the only new one.” _ Cooper pointed out.

_ “Crash site is one hundred metres ahead.” _ Sato reported.

_ “Shit. The amateurs got here first.” _ Harper grumbled.

“It’s not right to spy on them.” Jones cautioned.

Leah didn’t look up from the tablet. She was instructing Azure on staying hidden while also getting surveillance.

“Oi. Would you mind helping me feed her?” Jones asked. At the exact time their resident pterodactyl let out a high pitched screech.

Leah didn’t reply.

Jones huffed. He went out to do his actual job.

_ “Alright, usual formation.” _ The Captain instructed.

Leah sat up as it played out. The Torchwood team walked into the crash site of the meteor. Cooper only fell behind the once- throwing off Leah’s spying. They went to the crash site. Leah was able to see the meteor. It was a normal hunk of rock, from what she could tell. Nothing specific as of yet.

The four Torchwood Three workers started working on the meteor. Her aunt was collecting samples. Sato was scanning it. Harper was collecting more samples. The Captain supervised, tossing tools to Harper. Cooper sat off to the side, unknowingly giving Leah a perfect shot of the whole thing.

Leah suspected it was going to be a boring collection. Until Cooper did the thing.

_ “It’s a shame your tool’s not big enough for the job, darlin’. Catch.” _ She tossed a large handheld chisel towards Harper.

Harper ducked to avoid the sharp end.  _ “Don’t!” _

Leah gawked as the chisel pierced the rock. There was a crack over the speakers. The rock began glowing pink-purple, a giant gas cloud flying out. The Captain tossed out gas masks. The gas cloud floated up into the sky, vanishing into the night.

Leah swore under her breath.

What a first day for everyone.

 

==HBA==

  
The team returned a half-hour later. Leah knew that when she started getting a headache, and her stomach started whirling.

The Captain had forewarned Jones about the alien let loose, while Leah had been given off-hand information. Just enough to keep her informed, but not as much as people working the field.

Upon reentry to the Hub, Leah heard Cooper speaking first.

“I’m so sorry.” She told them, sounding like she’d been saying it a lot.

The Captain confirmed this with his reply of “Seriously, stop saying that.”

“But I am. I mean, really.” Cooper apologized. Sato and Harper walked passed her. Her aunt didn’t even look Cooper’s way. Or Leah’s, which was okay. “I mean really, really sorry. God, I can’t believe it.”

“Didn’t they teach you Health and Safety in the police?” Harper snarked.

“You two chucked tools at each other, so I-” Cooper excused, stuttered.

“We didn’t miss.” Harper pointed out.

“I’ll sort it. Whatever’s happened, I’ll deal with it.” Cooper promised.

“Yeah? And what _ has _ happened, then?” Chloe asked.

“I mean, it was just gas, wasn’t it?” Cooper wondered. “That can’t be too bad, can it?”

“Right, because gas never did anyone any harm.” Harper snarked.

Leah rolled her eyes. At that exact moment, her tablet pinged. She looked at the information it gave.

“On the plus side, we’ve got good evidence, relatively undamaged.” The Captain noted.

“On the downside, there’s an alien on the loose.” Harper countered. Leah stood up, walking towards the medical pit where they were hiding. “We don’t know where it is, why it’s here or what it’s going to do.”

“Give her a break.” Sato scolded him.

“God, this has been the worst first day ever.” Cooper complained.

“Been good for me.” Leah noted.

“You, shut it.” Chloe ordered her. Leah gawked at her aunt. “This is adult stuff. Not for kids!”

Leah gawked still.

“We all make mistakes.” The Captain spoke up, to a still concerned Cooper. “Get over it. Now, we find and recover whatever came out of there.”

“Like this?” Leah held up her tablet. The team turned to her. “Nightclub death reported from 999. Some...unique cause of death. Sounds exactly like Torchwood to me.”

The Captain grinned at her. It made Leah sick.

 

==HBA==

 

Leah watched through Azure’s lens what happened to the dead body. She was appalled. 

_ They kept a security camera in the girl’s restroom? What the hell, humanity? _

Leah was also disgusted by this _ whatever _ . Some kind of energy? It had killed the man after the... _ you know _ ...in which he turned into golden energy and was...what? Absorbed? Evaporated? Leah’s mind scrambled for any kind of creature that fed that way.

_ “Wow.” _ The Captain mumbled.

_ “My God.” _ Sato mumbled.

_ “He just- _ ” Cooper stuttered.

_ The Captain “Came and went.” _ The Captain stated.

Chloe and Harper snorted.

_ “Now that’s the way I’d like to go.” _ Harper bemused.

_ “I’m sure we could arrange it.” _ Sato replied.

_ “Volunteering, then?” _ Chloe joked. 

_ “How can that be? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not possible.” _ The bouncer asked.

_ “Do you know the girl’s name? Did the two of them arrive together or did they meet in the club? Is she a regular? Would any of the other staff know her?” _ Cooper pressed.

_ “I dunno. We get hundreds of people here every weekend. I don’t keep tabs.” _ The bouncer snapped, running his hand along his bald head.

_ “Thanks for your help. We’ve got all we need.” _ The Captain assured.

_ “What are you talking about? We haven’t got a clue. We don’t even know her name.” _ Cooper argued with the Captain.

Leah pulled out another application on the tablet. She started working on calculations for where the ship could’ve come from- complete with the trajectory it had made upon entry on Earth’s atmosphere. There were already a few ideas in her head.

_ “We’ll need a body from the cryo-chamber, close match for the dead guy’s appearance. Disfigure the face, dump it someplace remote, make it look like a suicide attempt.” _

_ “You have a stash of bodies?” _

Leah suppressed her urge to shout at them. She had math to do.

_ “What about his family? You can’t just fake his death.” _

_ “You want to tell his family he died screwing an alien?” _ The Captain countered.

_ “We don’t know that for sure.” _ Cooper dismissed, but she knew the truth.

_ “Same elements we recorded at the crash site. Traces all over the club, but strongest in this area. Something happened here.” _ The Captain stated.

They went off to watch the footage from the alleyway. Leah stopped to watch with them, thinking anything she saw would help her narrow it down.

The girl from the bathroom video was alone in the alley. She was crying. As she cried, the pink-purple gas floated in. The girl looked up at it, cowering in fear and confusion. The gas floated into her body. She walked back towards the door of the club.

So it worked via hosts...okay...okay...Leah could work with that.

_ “It’s my fault. If it weren’t for me, he’d still be alive.” _ Cooper realized.

_ “That’ll get you nowhere, that thinking. At least now we know a little more. The alien’s taken on a host body.” _ The Captain told her.

_ “We can’t let her kill again.” _

So it fed by absorption, triggered by the release created in sexual couplings, used a host body, and was a pink/purple gas. Sentient also, if how the host behaved after the initial merger occurred. If it wasn’t, then it wouldn’t have engaged in conversations with the bouncer.

Leah could definitely work with that.

 

==HBA==

 

Her headache had come back.

Worse yet, it was copying her.

“So, what’s this supposed to do?” Cooper asked, nodding to the window that the Captain had drawn on in bright green.

The Captain had drawn circles around the window, using a laser pointer to track a line. The circles reminded Leah so much of Gallifreyan that her hearts ached in her chest. 

“I’m using satellite tracking data to determine the inward trajectory of the meteorite.” He explained to his team.

“He means he’s trying to find out where it’s come from.” Sato supplied for the less educated team members.

“Hey! Sometimes a little technobabble is good for the soul.” The Captain countered. A fond grin on his face.

“So this is a route planner.” Cooper realized with a nod.

“Layman’s terms, yeah.” Chloe answered. She had been typing up some kind of report, no doubt working on something to tie in with the dead body they were planting.

“Rhys, my boyfriend, is a transport manager. He does this sort of stuff. On a slightly smaller scale, though.” Cooper admitted.

“You have a boyfriend?” Sato remarked.

“Yeah. Have you?” Cooper countered.

Sato laughed. “I don’t have time with this job.”

“And you?” Cooper asked Chloe.

The Torchwood agent snorted. Leah was having trouble to keep from looking her way. She knew her aunt had been wanting for it, to have men over. Hard to do that when there’s a teenage girl sleeping in the next room. Leah was convinced, however, that all the nights Chloe hadn’t come home were about Torchwood.

“What about you? You seeing anyone?” Cooper asked Harper.

“You’ve gotta be joking. I can get all the grief I need here.” Harper joked. Chloe whacked his arm.

“None of you have partners?” Cooper commented, surprised. 

“Just you, newbie.” Harper winked for good measure.

She turned towards Leah. “Not even you?” The Time Lady shook her head. “I’d had figured even a young girl like you would have  _ something. _ ”

“I don’t fancy people.” Leah corrected herself at the last second, from saying _ ‘humans’ _ . Not that she didn’t know some were attractive, she had eyes. It was just... She was barely out of infancy from her species- adding the whole ‘sexual attraction’ thing was a bit much, even for her kind.

There was too much going on for her to consider any kind of relationship. If she got caught...if Torchwood found out what she was...whatever partner she chose would never have peace.

“I’m not being rude or anything. Well, maybe I am, but, how do you switch off from all this stuff?” Cooper asked the group. “What do you do to relax?”

“I torture people in happy relationships.” Harper supplied.

Leah remembered the perfume gas he had returned. She wondered if it had gone missing again.

Sato’s work tablet pinged. She checked it. “Gas traces confirmed as Vorax and Suranium.” Sato revealed.

Leah’s eyes widened. Well  _ that _ helped. 

“Great. My two favorite gases.” The Captain supplied while Leah madly wrote out calculations. “Can we do a check and find out what we know about them?”

“I’m all over it.” Harper accepted. He rushed out towards the medical pit.

Everyone went out to do more supplied jobs. Leah moved to a small desk they had given her. Chloe went off towards the cells- she had creatures to feed.

With what Sato provided, Leah got a lot.

She had narrowed it down to two species. Problem was they were in two different planets, and two different galaxies. They were both so close to what this gas was...all she’d needed was just a little more to narrow it down. The Onkids from Petrorix fed by absorbing energy from release, but only from males of other species. Or at least the energy needed to feed was the same thing human males had. The Yurgalians from Thoria UVOP fed from the release itself- very much like the human  _ Incubi/Succubi _ myths. Both were parasites, and both were pinkish clouds of gas. 

“What’s this doing?” Cooper asked.

Silence followed. Leah glanced up, seeing Cooper looking at her. She remembered the job she was supposed to be doing. She pointed at the screen. “You got an image of her face in the alleyway. I’m using this against the UK population.”

“You can’t have every face in the UK on there.” Cooper countered. Jones walked around with tea. He handed a mug to the Captain, getting a grin. “That would be against civil liberties, data protection, all that stuff.”

“Still doing that ‘ _ you’  _ instead of ‘ _ we’ _ thing.” The Captain reminded Cooper. He had some of the tea, giving Leah a knowing look.

Leah glared at the Captain. _ ‘I’m not one of you.’ _

Her computer pinged. Leah turned to it, seeing _ 119 matches _ flashing in red. She hummed, immediately going to work to narrow it down further. 

“Damn. A hundred and nineteen suspects? This thing’s supposed to give us a single clear match.” Harper huffed.

“The CCTV was too low res.” Sato reasoned from her computer. “An image like that, you try magnifying and augmenting but it just breaks up. Which means the software can’t function properly.”

Leah didn’t acknowledge the comment. There was work to be done.

“It’s narrowed the numbers down. I could check through the rest. You know, the old fashioned way. With my eyes.” Jones offered. He dropped a cup of tea at Leah’s arm.

“What about the fingerprints I took off the alley wall?” Cooper asked.

“Oh. I had that.” Sato held motioned to her computer. As Cooper went to look, the results popped up.

_ No match found. _

Cooper’s excitement dropped. “It was a long shot, anyway.”

“Just a bit.” Harper snarked.

“At least I’m trying to do something.” Cooper snapped at him.

“No, you’re trying anything.” Harper countered.

Leah kept on typing.

“The CCTV must have picked up her arrival at the club.” The Captain noted. He walked up behind Leah. She tensed- feeling his approach. She paused in her typing, forcing herself to take deep breaths. “Leah, can you reformat the image recognition software to trace her journey backwards via street camera network?”

Leah replied through clenched teeth. “Already on it.”

What made her feel worse was the Captain’s chuckle of pleased surprise.

“But that takes a long time to process.” Sato countered. “Every possible turn on every street corner means hundreds and thousands of probabilities.”

“Have a go.” The Captain ordered Leah, despite the protests. “At least we’ll know where she started the evening.”

“We could cross reference that with the addresses of the remaining face matches.” Cooper suggested.

“I can definitely add that.” Leah took the suggestion, adding it to the code for her search. She added a routine that it would cross off the addresses that didn’t follow the girl’s path.

“Good one, newbies. That’s a bit more like it.” Harper praised.

“We better get comfortable. It will be a long time before-” Sato began.

Leah’s computer pinged. “Done.” She brought up the remaining 12 results. She looked over the pictures before spotting her. “There- Carys Fletcher.” She turned to the Torchwood Team who were staring in confusion.

Except the Captain.

That Captain had on a smug fucking grin.

Leah turned away from it. She rose from her desk, walking off to the cells to collect her aunt. Apparently there was work to be done.

 

==HBA==

 

They had arrived at the Fletcher house just in time to stop the parasite from killing again. They trapped it- with Harper’s stolen tech from work. Leah was hoping this would be the thing that got him fired.

When the team returned, Chloe had the poor girl in her grip. Leah felt for the girl. It was just a parasite...they had no reason to be so stern. 

“Chloe, hand her off to Gwen.” The Captain instructed. Chloe did so. Cooper stared in confusion, but kept hold of the prisoner. “See what you can find out from her.”

“But aren’t you going to help me? I don’t know what I’m doing.” Cooper excused.

“Usually better if you don’t say that in front of the prisoner.” The Captain noted.

Harper and Sato walked by her space. Leah was glaring at Harper. The Captain walked by, following Leah’s line of sight. He pulled out the small rock that had created the prison to trap Carys.

Leah kept glaring at Harper.

“He  _ did _ trap the prisoner.” The Captain pointed out.

Leah sneered Harper’s way. “She’s a scared girl. Anyone would run.”

The Captain had no case against that. He tucked the rock back into his pocket. “He was trying to help.”

“So was Cooper.” Leah countered. “And you lot are mocking her for it.”

The Captain again said nothing to that. “Do you call all of us by our last names? We’re a team.”

“Not all of you.” Leah countered. “You’re just  _ the Captain _ .”

Understanding that Leah had nothing more to say to him, he stopped the conversation. He walked off towards his office, to hide the rock like a teacher hides confiscated items in a drawer.

She pulled out her tablet. She pulled up Azure’s feed over Cooper.

Carys was cowering in her cell. She was clearly frightened and confused by everything. Leah wished there was something she could do. She remembered being where Carys was. Stuck in a Torchwood cell...thinking you’d never be let free. 

_ “Are you MI5? Where am I? What do you want?” _ Carys asked.

_ “I think you know, Carys.” _ Cooper replied.

Her face fell. She had hoped they had no idea.  _ “How do you know my name? I’ve never been in trouble. What do you want from me?” _

_  “I know there’s something living inside you and I know what it made you do.” _ Cooper explained, careful and concerned. “ _ His name was Matt Stevens. His parents lost their only child at three oh seven this morning.” _

Carys looked a moment away from crying. Before a tear could fall she screamed in pain. She lashed out against the wall, clutching her stomach. She stood up straight to glare at Cooper.  _ “You broke my ship.” _ She stated coldly.

Leah’s attention sharpened.

Cooper’s did as well.  _ “Come on, then. Where are you from and why are you trying to invade Earth? Because you can forget about enslaving us.” _

Leah rolled her eyes.

_ “Who said anything about enslaving?” _ The alien questioned,

_ “Well, that’s what you lot do. Aliens. Isn’t it?” _ Cooper guessed. Oh the poor thing, first interaction with an actual alien and she blames it for an invasion. Leah pitied the ex-constable.

_ “No, I just want the energy. The climax? I live off that energy.” _ The alien explained coldly.

_ “Right. Sorry, just to recap. You’ve travelled here to feed off orgasmic energy?” _ Cooper repeated.

_ “There’s nothing else out there like it. You taste so good. You’re the best hit there is.”  _ The alien explained. It gasped out again, clutching her stomach. She fell back against the wall, whimpering.  _ “No! ” _ She was thrown across her cell- reminding Leah of the human ghost movies.

Cooper rushed into the cell to check on the girl. She knelt at the girl’s side, checking for injury.

_ “Help me. Please, get it out of me.” _ Carys pleaded. Cooper helped her to her feet. Once standing, the fearful posture fell away.

_ “Carys?” _ Cooper questioned.

The alien pushed her head forward for a kiss.

Leah grimaced. Well at least Cooper died out of concern for the girl. She jumped off the couch, rushing towards the prison cells.

_ “Okay. First contact with an alien not quite what I expected.” _ Cooper remarked.

Leah rolled her eyes.

Back at the Hub, the rest of the team noticed. Harper noticed first, watching for a long moment before deciding to report it. The team waited a long moment before deciding to do any rescuing. That’s what they got for not having personal lives.

Leah made it to the cells first. She went inside, creeping along to be sure she wasn’t jumped.

“No. It’s no good. It’s got to be a man.” That confirmed it then the alien was an Onkid. Leah was impressed she’d almost had it right. At least Cooper wasn’t in danger anymore. “I’m losing. Promise me you’ll help me. Promise me.”

Cooper’s phone rang.

“I promise.” Cooper promised. She walked out of the cell to see Leah there. Leah held up a thumb, grinning. Cooper gave a nod while answering the phone. “Hi...Fraid so.”

“Leah!” A voice hissed. Leah turned around, seeing her aunt, Sato, and the Captain at the door. Chloe motioned for her niece to come away. The Captain made a motion to Cooper.

Cooper held up a thumb. Leah walked back to the door. She didn’t notice the Onkid’s gaze following her. “Not sure when I’ll be finished though...Er, some.” 

Leah was dragged back down the hall by her aunt. “Hey! I can walk.”

“Into danger, clearly.” Chloe snarked.

“At least I was doing something. The rest of you were content just sitting about to  _ watch _ .” Leah countered with bite. “What’s with the human race and being voyeurs?”

Chloe’s reply was to keep dragging Leah back up to the Hub.

Two minutes later, Cooper followed them. She was greeted by applause from Harper and Chloe.

“Way to go, newbie. That is what I call a methodical investigation.” Harper praised. “I can’t wait to see you take down her particulars.”

Cooper’s reply was to grab Harper than slam him against a wall.

Leah’s approval for Cooper skyrocketed. 

“What are you doing? Get off me.” Harper ordered.

“That girl’s body is being overrun by I don’t know what, and you think it’s a joke?” Cooper hissed in his face.

“Alright. Jesus. I’m sorry.” Harper huffed. 

“We should be helping her. She’s not some lab rat.” Cooper hissed.

“No, she’s a murderer, and you were the one who wanted her caught.” Harper countered. “How come suddenly she’s your best friend?”

Cooper looked ready to murder him.

Leah was fully supportive of this plan.

Her aunt was less eager with it. She nodded her head at the Captain, who went to go help.

“You know, strictly speaking, throttling the staff is  _ my _ job.” The Captain told Cooper.

Leah’s respect for the Captain plummeted.

“So.” Jones Apple up. Leah turned around, seeing him hold up a tray full of takeout. “Who’s for Chinese?”

 

==HBA==

 

They were laughing now. All of them. 

Leah was typing away on her tablet, searching for anything. She was trying to remember anything she could about the Onkids. A way to send it home. A way to stop it. She should’ve paid more attention in classes.

“And she said, if I’d known what he was, I never would have married him.” The Captain laughed.

“She knew. She knew all along.” Sato called out.

“Of course she knew- how could she not know?” Chloe laughed.

“And she didn’t care.” Harper countered. He had another bite of his food.

“Until he started leaving black piles of mucus in the bathtub.” Jones laughed.

“Always the big giveaway. Aliens have no sense of household hygiene.” The Captain joked. He sipped at his water. “Which reminds me. Gotta pee.” He rushed out from the room.

Leah didn’t look up from her tablet. She heard the conversation die down. She figured that was all just normal for these things.

“So what’s he told you?” Harper questioned. Leah glanced up, seeing the team glancing between Cooper and Leah herself.

“What about?” Cooper asked.

“Himself.” Sato answered.

“You’ve been here longer than we have.” Cooper countered, confused.

“We’d hoped he say something to the newbies.” Chloe admitted.

“You’re a copper. You’re trained to ask questions.” Harper confirmed. “And she’s a kid. He’s gotta tell you something.”

Leah couldn’t care less about any of it. She kept typing away.

“You don’t know anything?” Cooper asked.

“Not who he is, not where he’s from. Nothing. Except him being gay.” Harper answered. Sato and Chloe smiled into their meals.

“No, he’s not. Really, do you think?” Cooper asked.

“Owen does. I don’t.” Sato answered.

“And I don’t care.” Jones supplied, pointedly looking down at his meal.

“And I think Jack doesn’t either.” Chloe added in.

“Period military is not the dress code of a straight man.” Harper noted to those against.

Leah was almost amused. Humans from the 52nd century had been more promiscuous. It would make sense that humans in the 21st wouldn’t be able to understand.

“I think it suits him. Sort of classic.” Cooper excused.

“Exactly. I’ve watched him in action. He’ll shag anything if it’s gorgeous enough.” Sato hinted.

Huh. So one of them got it.

“Yeah!” Chloe replied. “Remember that time he went off with those twins? The leggy blond and the curvy brunette?” Sato nodded, with a bright fond smile on her face.

Two. Two of them got it.

“We know he’s from America, right?” Cooper replied.

Harper shook his head. “We don’t even know that for sure.”

“No US citizen by the name of Jack Harkness born in the last fifty years.” Sato revealed.

“Maybe his identity’s classified.” Cooper suggested.

“Used to be something big in the CIA. That’s what I reckon.” Jones spoke up.

Cooper shook her head. “He must have his reasons for wanting to keep things secret.”

Leah wanted to snicker. Clearly the man had something to hide if he’d become-  _ that _ . The very thing that grated on her senses like sandpaper. A perfect Time Lord repellent. Shame Leah held hatred of Torchwood stronger than that. 

“Sure he has. Doesn’t stop me wanting to know what they are.” Harper dismissed. 

Leah tensed. She could hear crying coming from a computer. She looked up to the TV screen in the boardroom they were in.

“What’s that sound?” Cooper asked.

“It sounds like crying.” Leah noted.

Harper turned on the image. The screen lit up, showing Carys curled up in her cell. Leah wanted to cry herself at the sight.

“It’s disgusting.” Leah scrunched up her face in distaste. “That girl is fighting for her life, and we’re sitting around having Chinese.”

“Actually, while we’ve been eating-” The Captain supplied as he walked back into the room. Leah glared at him. “-the computers have been running a full bio-scan on Carys, profiling her blood, metabolism, organs, skin, the works. So we can see what effect the alien’s having on her.” He sat down, going back to his meal as you like. “They’ve also been taking samples of the air in the cell so we can analyse and changes in the environment around her.”

He looked up at the flat faces of Cooper and Leah.

“Now, is that enough? Do you want more? Cos it gets kinda boring.” The Captain explained.

“You’ve been hidden down here too long. Spending so much time with the alien stuff, you’ve lost what it means to be human.” Cooper remarked.

“No. Don’t limit it to humanity.” Leah dismissed. She walked up to the screen, pressing the pads of her fingers to Carys’ sobbing form. “What it means to be decent, to be good. To have the smallest shred of care for others.” She turned around to the group, glaring in disappointment. Her aunt winced, pulling away from her food.

The Captain actually seemed affected by their speeches. “So remind us. Tell me what it means to be human in the twenty first century.”

“All right.” Cooper agreed.

“It’s done.” Leah agreed with a nod.

 

==HBA==

 

Leah and Cooper spent the next while doing research. Looking up everything and anything about Carys that would summarize who she was inside. Once done they pinned up the print outs to the walls. 

The Captain was the only member of the Teams to come up. Not that Leah was surprised. She knew her aunt was wrangling the pterodactyl right now.

“Carys Fletcher, born 13th November, 1987. School reports, personnel files from her temping agency, swimming badges.”

“Reports of her mother’s death in a car crash at age 10.” Leah pointed to the article. “Right now works at Conway Clinic on weekdays.”

“And last years emails discussing the merits of Orlando Bloom and Heath Ledger.” Cooper finished off.

The Captain stared at the pictures. “Why have you done this?” He asked them,

“This isn’t about meteorites or gases. We have a trapped girl and we have to save her.” Cooper stated, in such a way Leah was tempted to call her Gwen. “When I was with her in the cell, Carys told me she was losing. We have to find a way to keep her fighting. Remind her to hold on to who she is.”

“We’ve locked her away with it- given her nothing to fight with. We’ve treated her worse than a lab rat. Anyone would feel like giving up.” Leah admitted. “We need to remember that she’s a person with a life. That it’s that life we need to protect. That’s why you do all of this. To protect lives like her’s.”

The Captain stared at them. Not saying anything with his expression, nothing bad at least.

“Have we got something on our faces?” Cooper questioned him.

The Captain burst out laughing. The kind of laugh you knew would be endless if the person didn’t contain it soon. “No. Just, it’s brilliant.” He laughed again. He smiled at them both. “ _You_ are _both_ _brilliant_.”

“Thank you.” Cooper accepted the praise. Leah was trying to deny that she was beaming inside at the praise. “So I think we should bring in her dad.”

“You’re kidding, right?” The Captain gawked.

Leah didn’t think was a good idea either. Now that she was certain they were an Onkid, males were far more susceptible to that-

_ Harper. _

“We’ve got to find something to connect with her. Make her fight back.” Cooper explained.

Leah wasn’t listening anymore. She checked her tablet- Chaos was maintaining a feed on Janet. It was nothing to have it scurry over to the next cell.

“Our priority is to contain the alien threat, not put civilians in a cell with it.” The Captain argued.

“We should be helping her.” Cooper argued.

Sure enough, Harper was at Carys’ cell.

Leah held back a sigh.

“Gwen, there is no way-”

“If we don’t, who will, Jack?”

_ ‘By the twin suns. Now I have to help him. _ ’ Leah grumbled. She slunk off towards the cells.

“Are you always this awkward?” The Captain asked Cooper.

“You should take a look at this.” Sato called out from her computers.

Leah wasn’t listening. She had something to do.

She went down into the cells. 

She found Carys ripping off Harper’s clothes. The man was just letting her do that. Leah would be surprised if she didn’t know anything about Harper.

“Hey! Let him go.” Leah warned. “Carys, you need to get it to let him go.”

The Onkid turned towards her, eyes ferocious.

Leah could smell the pheromones already. She pushed down any urge. “You need to- need to let him go. It’s not- there’s no-I know what you-”

She felt the ground under her, then nothing.

 

==HBA==

 

The memory was sluggish. Slow. Faded. She was aware of all the wrong things.

_ “I met him already. In the Year.” _

_ “No way. I called you, future you, she said she slept with him!” _

_ “Really?” _

_ “Yeah! I mean, she was in Torchwood jail cells, and she’s definitely killed him a couple times, but she was happy!” _

_ “I felt like I was missing out. Hello. Captain Jack Harkness. I’ve heard a lot of things about you.” _

 

==HBA==

 

_ “I’ll deal with it. And tell Owen he needs to work on those abs a bit harder.” _

“Leah!” The voice called out again.

Leah shot up with a yelp. Her aunt was kneeling over her, holding her shoulder. 

Harper was in the cell, alive and well. He was buck naked. He covered himself with a clipboard. Leah grimaced, turning from it. Her stomach was swirling. A dinner she barely touched wanted out.

“I was taking some readings, you know, keeping an eye on her, and bang.” Harper admitted.

“You got away lightly. Be thankful she was only interested in your swipe card.” Sato warned him, opening the cell door.

“That’s just him. What were  _ you _ doing down here?” Chloe snapped at her.

Leah gave a hard blink, trying to fight the sensations off again. “Stronger for men...pheromones...Harper’s an idiot.”

“So are you!” Chloe scolded.

Leah thought her aunt was actually taking it worse than Lawrence. “At least I...first.”

“Are you all right now? Or are you still feeling a bit of a cock?” Cooper scolded Harper, kneeling towards Leah and Chloe. Sato chuckled at Harper’s expense. “And you, Leah, are you alright?”

Leah looked up at the woman. The memory was playing over and over in her mind, reminding her about what she’d just seen. She remembered being a dungeon not unlike this one, seeing another girl walking among them in a bright red outfit, and  _ the Captain  _ had been there.

She was not okay.

“I’m fine.” She replied. “It- hit me harder than I thought.”

Coo- _ Gwen _ accepted that explanation. She held her hand out to the Time Lady. “Come on, we need to stop her.”

Leah took the hand.

All of them- minus Harper, who needed to dress- rushed back to the Hub. They made it in time to hear the Captain shouting.

“Put it down! That’s worthless to anyone but me. Down now, or I’ll shoot.” The Captain warned.

Leah tensed, holding tight to Gwen’s arm.

“Says he will but the eyes say he won’t. I’m going. Don’t stop me.” The Onkid warned. It rushed out to the elevator. It switched to Carys as the doors closed. “Please, help me.”

Jack rushed to the stairs. The women and Time Lady followed after him. They all ran up the stairs. They caught up in time to hear the sounds of glass shattering. When they walked into the lobby Leah saw Jones by the door and the Captain behind the desk. Chloe, Gwen, and Sato ran out the door after Carys.

Leah walked behind the desk. She saw the Captain clutching a soaking wet loose hand. It had been in the jar, she reckoned. 

Just when she was about to write it off, Leah  _ felt _ something. Something off- like an earworm you couldn’t ignore. She walked up behind the desk.

She was startled when she realized what it was. “Whose hand is that?”

The Captain said nothing.

“Whose hand is that?” Leah pressed. “Where did you get it?”

“It’s not important.” The Captain snapped, his tone colder than Leah had ever heard it. Even when he threatened Suzie. “Forget you ever saw this.”

But Leah couldn’t forget.

Cause now she saw something that the memory had showed her.

Whoever he had been before Torchwood...he’d been good.

Leah glanced between the hand and the gun. She thought about how he had shouted for the Onkid to put it down. The way you protected a loved one.

_ “...One day I’ll find someone, like a certain girl- or maybe even a doctor-the right sort of doctor, and maybe they can explain it, but until then." _

Maybe...he wanted that goodness back. In whatever form her future self would take him.

 

==HBA==

 

The Captain had put the hand in a new jar. The embalming water inside bubbled, keeping the hand from rotting. Leah guessed the parts at the top were detectors. Not for Time Lords specifically, rather it was just the one for which the hand belonged. It would’ve bubbled when Leah first arrived if it was for Time Lords alone. She bet it was to tell him when that Doctor was around- and unless there was a Time Lord on Earth right now going through extraordinary lengths to be hidden then the hand was just to detect the one.

Where the doctor was, her future self wasn’t going to be far behind. So Jack suspected.

Leah threw that thought away. He wasn’t Jack. He was the Captain. Jack was just a memory she hadn’t lived through yet. The Captain was a deep part of what Torchwood was.

“After all I said, a severed hand is more important to you than Carys’ life.” Gwen scolded him.

The Captain took the scolding like a champ. “You want to prove yourself? Find her. Get your old pals in the police to do something useful for once.”

“Alright, I’ll give them a call. Put out an APB.” Gwen snarked. “Woman possessed by gas knobbing fellas to death.”

The Captain rolled his eyes.

“Oi. You’d better get in here.” Harper called out.

The team all went over. Leah stared at the hand for a long moment- a hand lost near enough to the time of regeneration, oh Doctor the things you get into- before joining.

Harper was in the medical pit. Leah leaned over the rails. She saw a rat in a glass box.

“So, I’m trying to interpret the results of the bio-scan.” Harper explained. “Yeah, but it’s just a mess, like there’s no definitive readings. Because everything in her body keeps changing, nothing stays constant. So as soon as you think you’ve got something clear, the metabolic rate, the blood pressure, whatever, it all goes wild again.”

“Because she’s fighting the alien for control of her own body.” The Captain reasoned.

“Yeah. So anyway, I decided to do a comparative diagnostic.” Harper explained. “Recreate the circumstances, accelerate the process a little, see what’s gonna happen to Carys.”

Gwen nodded in acknowledgment that he was trying. “Yeah, thanks.”

“I infected the rat with a combination of the Vorax and the Suranium gas traces we found at the crash site and the nightclub.” Harper explained.

“Looks fine so far.” Sato shrugged.

“Once the gases start to flow round the body, the party really starts.” Harper pulled up a holographic image onto a wall. He showed off the effects. “The heart rate triples. The brain swells, pressing against the skull. As that keeps going, the lungs began to shrink, making it impossible to breathe. The pressure increases on all the internal organs until-”

The rat went pop.

Leah tilted her head. Hadn’t the humans already known this was going to happen? Come on, it wasn’t hard to guess that the parasite and the girl wouldn’t last long unless they got more energy. 

“Rat jam.” Harper decreed.

“Great. That’s not disgusting.” Chloe grimaced.

“That’s what’s gonna happen to Carys?” The Captain pointed at the ‘jam’.

“I’m losing, that’s what she said to me.” Gwen remembered, looking more startled at the implications.

“Right now, it’s a struggle between where Carys ends and the alien begins.” Harper warned.

 

==HBA==

 

They had moved out of the medical pit. Leah tapped idly on her tablet, trying to think. 

“We have to think like her. Put ourselves in her place. It’s the only way to find her.” Gwen 

“Except we don’t know what her controlling impulse is by now.” The Captain argued. “Carys or the alien inside. The last thing I saw was a fight for control.”

“The Sex Gas needs sex. It’s an overriding factor- survival instinct.” Chloe reasoned. “It’s the strongest impulse she’d have.”

“Alright, so you’re Carys. You’re desperate for sex cos that’s what the thing inside you needs, but you know it will kill.” Gwen explained. “Where would you go?”

“I’d come round and shag you.” Harper suggested. Leah sneered at him. “What? It’s a joke. Can’t I have a joke with my teammates?”

“Right now? No.” Sato stated.

“Not unless you want to be bait.” Chloe warned him.

“So what are we talking about?” The Captain asked, trying to get everyone back to task. “Brothels? Lap dance clubs? Anywhere there’s eager men?”

“I know what I’d do.” Sato mumbled. Everyone turned to her. “My ex.”

“Leah?” Gwen prompted.

Leah looked over to their wall of facts of Carys Fletcher. “There he is. According to social media, they’ve just broken up...two days ago. Her recent texts to friends implied he cheated on her.”

Nothing more to say on that. The Torchwood Team- those cleared for fieldwork, anyway- rushed out after her.

Leah went to her computer. She displayed her tablet, setting it up to show Azure’s unbroken feed.

 

==HBA==

 

According to Azure’s feed, they got their too late to save the boyfriend. Leah had reminded them on Carys’ workplace as soon as they were out of the apartment. They had gotten to the Conway Fertility Clinic in time to save a handful of men (Leah refused to acknowledge it as a pun). 

Carys had started sobbing. The Onkid had demanded more and more sex- more than Carys could handle. Leah’s hearts went out to her.

Gwen managed to talk the Onkid down. She offered her own body to use- stating that Carys was about to die so it would need a new host or it would die too. Leah panicked. She knew Gwen had blamed herself for this whole mess, that still didn’t make it okay to just give your body to an Onkid!

Lucky for everyone involved, the Captain had taken the portable prison with him. When the Onkid left Carys, it drifted towards Gwen. The Captain tossed down the prison. It trapped the Onkid until it crumbled into dust.

So...justice.

Leah let out a breath of relief. She wouldn’t want the one Torchwood agent she liked dying.

 

==HBA==

 

Leah was gone from Torchwood when everyone came back. She had a feeling she was having a friend over to visit. 

Lawrence was on the roof of her aunt’s building. Leah climbed up the fire escape to meet him. He was standing, chill as you like, looking  _ nothing at all _ like a Batman-reject.

“So. Torchwood.” He stated.

Leah looked on the city of Cardiff. “Yep.”

“Take it your first day went well.” Lawrence noted. “You’re not in jail, or dead.”

“Dying is man-flu for my kind.” Leah countered. “I’d just be a new person if they’d killed me.”

Lawrence gave her a look. Leah said nothing. It was a serious look from a vampire- Leah wasn’t stupid.

“And when they catch you? What then?” Lawrence questioned. “You’ll just pop on a new face, hide until they stop looking?”

“You saw myself in the future. You know they don’t kill me.” Leah countered. “See? I’ll be fine.”

“Just because they didn’t kill you permanently, doesn’t mean they didn’t _ hurt you _ .” Lawrence countered in a scolding voice. Leah hesitated rolling her eyes. “No. I’m serious. You think they would hold back on you? No. I saw what they were like in that other world- my world. They aren’t nice-”

“You think I don’t know what Torchwood is like!?” Leah snapped at him. “I was stuck there for months! Even when I got out, I kept thinking they would come back for me! I couldn’t sleep! Everyday was like a waking nightmare!”

Lawrence let her continue venting. He hadn’t seen her like this in a long time.

“And- and they haven’t changed! They’re still just as bad! They have a stash of bodies, did you know that? They’re using it to cover up a murder that happened yesterday. There was an Onkid killing men with sex-”

“There was a what doing what?” Lawrence asked, shocked.

Leah kept on. “-and they were going to let the girl die! The Onkid was using it as a host, and they were going to let her die! Worse yet they locked her up and joked about her life like it meant nothing. Like she was nothing. Nothing more than a rat that hadn’t exploded yet. It was disgusting! That asked me about  _ their own boss _ instead of searching for something to help her!”

Lawrence saw that Leah was starting to spiral. He went up. He held her arms, squeezing tight. Leah was hyperventilating. She clutched tight to Lawrence, slipping down in her own mind to panic.

Lawrence let them fall to the floor. Leah was on her knees, rocking now in Lawrence’s arms. She felt herself ready to start sobbing.

“She knew him.” Leah sobbed. “In the future, she knew him. I felt it. I saw it- they were- he felt so normal and he made her smile and- oh _ fuck _ -” She sobbed.

She sobbed for a long time.

Lawrence found no way to make her stop.

 

==HBA==

 

Jack looked at the hand again.

He was still waiting for them.

He glanced towards the Invisible-Lift. He knew they’d come right there. No better place to recharge the TARDIS.

He could only hope that Terra was still with him. He hadn’t seen her name on the list...he could still worry.

So Jack waited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have come to the conclusion that there is only one difference between Darcy Anderson and the Sex-Gas. The Sex-Gas needs sex to live, Darcy does not. That’s the only difference. I’m sorry I don’t make the rules.   
> Also, the Sex-Gas was never given a title or name or any fucking thing. So I made one up. If you know the actual name please don’t tell me. Let me live in my delusion.


	5. Ghost in the Machine

It had been a hard week for the Torchwood Three team. Their newbies had mostly settled in- meeting their first alien tends to make heroes or zeroes out of people. Gwen Cooper and Leah Luna-Johnson came out as real heroes. Even if they were heroes in training, they were still good. There was a lot to learn about humanity, about Torchwood, about seeing the good even through the worst shit.

Some days were easier than others.

Some days, you can go home to your partner. You’ll watch crap TV, takeaway trays out in front of you and a beer in your hand. You’ll smile when you think about your work day. You know you won’t ever be able to share it with them, but that they’re there at all soothes you.

Some days you’re confronted with the past. Of seeing a hand from your long distant species, the first contact you’ve had with them outside your own future self. You would focus on it every time you walked into work- unable to stop yourself. You feel more cutoff than you have been for years. So close to it, so close to memories of home, yet they’re still so far away.

Some days have ghosts.

There’s no preparing for when the ghosts come back.

Leah didn’t like ghosts.

Not since learning ghosts and Torchwood went hand in metal hand.

_ (Literally) _

 

==HBA==

 

When Lawrence later asked her day had gone that night, Leah had no easy answer.

_ “It started off so simple _ .” She would begin, sitting on a cold rooftop with Italian take out beside her. Lawrence would be sitting beside it- sipping on a blood packet from a blood bank.  _ “Something came up on the scanners- a non-terrestrial thing. They all went to chase it- I was on comm-duty.” _

_ “As all tech geniuses are.” _ Lawrence would tease.

Leah wouldn’t smile.  _ “They found it. It was a machine. Small, could fit in your hand. Gwen- something changed.” _

Lawrence did what any normal human would. He asked what the machine could do.

_ “It uses  _ _ nanotechnological quantum transducers that can convert emotional energy left over from significant events into visions of those events.” _ Leah would say.

Lawrence did what a normal person would do again: he asked for that in English.

_ “It showed you ghosts.” _ Leah answered. _ “One button for the past, one for the future. Gwen found the first half.” _

That gave Lawrence, a vampire, pause. He was well familiar with the idea of death- of dying. He knew his kind could be killed by UV rays, or losing one’s head. He was an older vampire so it would take something big to take him down. He had seen death- felt it in his own body as it decayed then lived on as something new. He had  _ served _ death. He had seen  _ -felt-  _ life leaving people. Death was not a new concept.

The idea of normal humans seeing it? That gave Lawrence pause. Humans didn’t handle the afterlife well. They were afraid. They tried to run from it. To stop it.

Leah knew better. Lawrence could see that. To her kind, death was just another turning of the wheel. Inevitable. Inescapable. But not _ permanent. _

She explained the events after the Torchwood Team found it. Gwen had seen a ghost from the past. A little boy, dressed for World War II, lost in a train station. It turned out to be a man still living, much older now, who still remembered being forgotten when everyone else evacuated.

Harper ended up activating it by accident. He witnessed a girl being raped and murdered. After searching for records, they confirmed the woman had been dead for a long time. The man most suspect- but never charged- still lived. Harper had wanted to bring him to justice. The rest of the team tried their best to give it.

They found the original thief who they had been chasing in the first place. The thief claimed to have the second half of the device. It showed the future.

_ “Why did he take it apart?” _ Lawrence would ask Leah.

_ “He saw his own death.” _ Leah would answer him. She would stop explaining for a few minutes. Something coming over her amber eyes, darkening them to a whiskey sort of brown. 

Lawrence would let her eat for a while. She needed time to explain. Lawrence understood the need for it. He got morose when hungry too. He sipped at his blood bag, wetting his tongue with good ole AB+.

_ “What next?” _ He would say after ten minutes of quiet.

Leah looked towards the ground. Her expression hadn’t once changed.  _ “Gwen touched it too.” _

_ “She saw herself die?” _

_ “Worse. She saw someone else- and she was holding the knife.” _

Leah explained the rest in short order. They found out their thief was blackmailing the aged rapist. The rapist had spotted Torchwood would the thief, thinking he’d been ratted out. Her aunt got them to the house before he could murder the thief- it had been a close thing, according to Chloe he’d actually been dead for a minute in the ambulance ride.

They chased the rapist. He was still waving around a bloody knife. Harper managed to wrench it from him. Harper had planned to dish out justice. He had watched the crime- heard poor Lizzie screaming out in the night as she breathed her last. Before Harper had the chance, Gwen took the knife.

But the rapist had too much guilt.

He ran himself onto it.

Leaving Gwen holding a bloody knife, looking startled out of her mind.

_ “The vision she saw. It was of that moment.” _ Leah confirmed with a nod. _ “If he was stopped, why are you so upset?” _

Leah braced herself, then finished her story.

 

==HBA==

 

“He wanted to die.” Sato reminded Gwen. “He would have found a way, no matter what.”

 She had been wrapped in a blanket. Gwen looked worn, like witnessing that death had broken something inside. She had barely spoken since Ed had killed himself.

Leah wanted to help her. She had seen death too- been able to do nothing about it. People on her planet had died. People on Earth had died. Leah had seen flashes of it so often in her head- it was hard to forget things like that.

“I screwed up, I know I did.” Harper apologized in his own sort of way.

“Good.” Chloe snapped at him.

“Oi I’m trying to apologize.” Harper snapped back. 

“Kids.” The Captain reminded. He gave a look towards the depressed Cooper.

Harper and Chloe were properly chided. They turned in on themselves, realizing there were bigger things right now than a fued. Leah was surprised it had worked.

“But er, I didn’t kill him.” Harper stressed. He gave Chloe a hard look, reminding her of that too. “I could of, but I didn’t.” 

“No. I did.” Gwen stated in a weak voice.

“Tosh is right.” The Captain reminded Gwen. “It could have been anyone.”

“What about that?” Sato nodded to the device resting in front of the Captain. Both halves connected together.

The Captain lifted it in his hands. “The problem with seeing the future is you can’t just sit and look at it. Got to try and change things, make it happen differently. It’s not meant for us. All these ghosts. We’d be lost.” He explained. He glanced up at the ceiling, as if he could see the sky. “Sun’s nearly up. Leah.”

“Yes Captain.” Leah walked up to the device. She took it in her hand...then felt adrift.

“Come on.” The Captain prompted her to put the device away.

She said nothing. 

“Go on. Secure archives.” The Captain prompted again.

Her eyes were wide. Her mouth dropped open, as if she’d forgotten how to close it.

“Leah?” Chloe prompted, concerned.

Everyone else looked over. They saw Leah’s face, her rapidly paleing face. Gwen knew that look. She’d felt it more than once. She had used the past side to see her memories with Rhys- the good days. But that look on Leah’s face was all bad. The things Gwen had seen from the future side, that were the reason her cheeks were covered in hot tears.

Only, the team noticed in fear that Leah’s hands were on  _ both  _ buttons.

Leah was staring ahead, eyes foggy. She blinked- appearing strained. She was trying to break whatever was happening in her head. The strain of both buttons working on her, the device itself, was so strong.

“Leah!” Chloe yelled sharply.

Jack shot up in his seat. He reached for the device, to snatch it from her hands. Leah leaned back out of his reach. Jack halted himself. He didn’t want the girl being hurt by accident. None of them had pressed both buttons before.

“What am I doing here?” She asked, voice subdued and sluggish. “I know this place...it’s a smaller world after all.”

“Leah?” Jack prompted. “What do you see?”

The girl turned to him. Her face twisted up in further confusion. “Buttface?” Leah asked, perplexed.

Jack’s face dropped. His eyes widened. He dared to let himself hope to hear a nickname spoken out loud for the first time in this lifetime. Not over the phone, not in his own depressed episodes, but to really _ hear it. _

Spoken by someone who _ definitely _ knew what it meant.

Leah was only more confused. “What...what am I doing...here...was it Carl? I swear, if you slept with her again and...and summoned me...me here...to brag-”

She fell to her knees.

Chloe went to help. Jack was faster. He got to her side, cradling the young girl closer to him. He rested her against his chest, letting her head droop onto his shoulder. The device was still held tight in her hands. She blinked her foggy eyes at him.

“Hey, hey it’s okay.” Jack assured her. He brushed a strand of her hair out of her face, behind her hair. Leah blinked up at him, confused and concerned. “I get it. I’m easy to fall for.”

Leah laughed- only it didn’t sound like how Leah laughed. Chloe knew her niece’s laugh. This laugh was like a chair squeaking on the floor- high pitched and raspy, like the person laughing had run out of air. “I told you- I’m not-”

Then she screamed.

Loudly.

The kind of scream you only heard from horror films, coming from the mouth of the monster as it was dying. It made the Torchwood Three team shudder. The screaming reminded them of childhood memories when the dark was full of monsters.

“IT’S COMING!” Leah screamed. She moved up in his hold. She stared her foggy amber eyes into his focused blue. “It’s coming, Jack, I couldn’t stop it. I can stop a pebble or a stone but this was an  _ avalanche! _ I can’t stop an avalanche! You have to believe me, Buttface, I tried so hard to stop it! You need to hold on and never let go. Promise me, Jack, you’ll never let go of that promise.”

“I promise, I’ll never let go.” Jack promised. “But- wait hold on- you need to tell me-”

The device fell from Leah’s shaking hands.

Leah  gasped in air as the fog left her eyes.

“No!” Jack cried out.

It was too late.

Whatever had been there was gone.

The ghost went back.

She pulled away from Jack. She gasped for air, as if she’d been drowning. She rolled on the ground, coughing out the pain.

Jack watched her- feeling nothing but shock. Many things clicked together for him, in that moment. 

Chloe and Gwen rushed to Leah’s side. The teenager threw herself into Chloe’s arms. Her cheeks soaked with silent pain filled tears. Gwen moved the blanket from herself to Leah’s back. The teen shook in Chloe’s arms.

“Time to go home.” Chloe insisted. She kicked the device towards Ianto.

Ianto knelt to grab it.

“Be careful with it!” Gwen reminded him.

Ianto nodded. He picked up the device, mindful of the buttons. He took it away.

Jack looked up at Chloe and Leah. He watched Chloe begin to guide Leah out of the office. He watched memories play before his eyes- ghosts that needed no device to be brought back to his mind.

 

==HBA==

 

Jack brought Gwen outside. Sure enough, the sun was beginning to rise. It had been a long night for everyone. They needed fresh air. They needed space away from the device- from what the day had wrought on them.

“I killed him.” Gwen explained, looking out onto the water. “I’ve still got blood on my hands.”

“He killed himself.” Jack insisted, trying to assure her. “Come on, Gwen. Look, the sun’s coming up.”

Gwen seemed to understand what he was trying to say. She looked towards the sky. The wind blew her hair about, almost blocking her view. She pushed it aside. “A new day.”

“The city’ll be awake soon.” Jack went on. He had his own lost look in his eyes. He was talking through it. Forcing the thoughts to the back of his mind to focus on Gwen- who was here and who needed him. “All those people. All that energy.”

“All those ghosts.” Gwen recalled.

“We’re surrounded by ‘em.” Jack told her. He had on his best most genuine smile. He wanted to remember the good. He wanted to remind Gwen about the goodness in the world. “We can’t see ’em, we can’t touch ’em but they’re there, all right. A million shadows of human emotion. We’ve just got to learn to live with them.”

“And who was your ghost?” Gwen asked after a pause. “That talked through Leah?”

Jack said nothing. His expression went guarded. He looked towards the sky.

“You seemed close.” Gwen carried on. “Really close.”

Jack said nothing.

Gwen looked away. She followed Jack’s gaze, looking up at the gray sky.

“She was someone special. Really special.” Jack admitted quietly.

Gwen turned to him, waiting for him to say more. To say anything about himself. To share his past- his own ghosts.

“More special than anyone you’ve ever known.” Jack recalled.

Gwen saw something he’d never seen on his face before. In the grey light of morning, it shined brighter than the soon to be rising sun.

Fondness.

 

==HBA==

 

Lawrence had the compulsion to hug Leah.

He knew better though. He’d gotten enough punches to learn by now.

Leah wiped more hot tears from her cheeks.

“You saw her again, didn’t you?”

“I don’t remember it.” Leah admitted, to Lawrence’s saddened shock. “I don’t remember anything I said. Aunt Chloe said it happened- that I said things to him. The Captain  _ held me _ and I wasn’t _ at all _ disgusted.” She looked down at her food, sounding more lost than Lawrence had ever seen her.

“And what else?” Lawrence asked in concern.

Leah sniffled. She wiped her sleeve across her face, hiding her face behind it. “She was scared.”

Lawrence leaned over. He wrapped an arm around her, letting Leah rest her head on his shoulder. She started silently sobbing on his shoulder. 

“Whatever it was, you don’t need to be-”

“She was scared for  _ him! _ ” Leah revealed, still sobbing. Lawrence paused in his assurances. “So scared...she thinks something bad is going to happen to Buttface...she was scared he’d hate her.”

And so Leah sobbed. Sobbed out her pain as she remembered the true fear she felt after holding that device.

Lawrence held her, letting the Time Lady cry. He saw the sun begin to rise. He lifted Leah up, rushing her downstairs to her room. She kept crying in his embrace. 

If some quiet part of her was remembering a different event-

Another sort of ghost-

Of times with a Captain who stood with her through tough times-

Leah would forget it by the sunrise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This episode was boring so I stuck with the painful parts! Does the science check out? Who knows! Do I care? No! Does it hurt? Hehehe...


	6. Cyberwoman

It’d been a slow day. Leah had labeled today a  _ ‘school’ _ day. A few days of the week had indeed been set aside for learning purposes. Especially since Torchwood had records of her  _ ‘attending homeschool’ _ .

Yeah that home was for a PO Box, but they hadn’t learned that yet.

Leah was ever so anxious that any day they would realize it.

For now...nothing happened.

She’d spent the morning working on her schooling. Ten hours of continuous uploaded learning. Leah was proud of herself there. Still, little for her to do. Latshaw was in town but the sun was too high up for them to meet or talk. She ended up catching on with Earth literature.

She got a text from Ianto late in the day. He’d ordered pizza- wanted to save a couple pounds having Leah pick up the order. She figured it was an easy task.

Leah picked up the pizzas, walking towards Torchwood. She had no clue of the lockdown that was occurring.

 

==HBA==

 

Leah walked into the lobby. She moved the pizzas in her arms, lowering them onto the front desk. They were still warm. In the chill of the night outside, she rather liked it.

She glanced around the lobby. There was no sign of Ianto, or any other Torchwood person. She nearly called out for someone, anyone. Something about the space made it stop. It was quiet. There was a foreboding air to the place.

More concerning was the door to the sub level was  _ open. _ That was a major breach in security. Ianto wouldn’t have left it open.

Leah wished she had a gun. 

Everything about this screamed  _ that _ scene in a horror film. Leah had seen a lot of those over the years, trying to learn more about Earth culture. It had gone as well as expected.

_ (Don’t watch  _ The Shining _ at 3 AM. Leah learned that lesson the hard way.) _

Still, Leah walked into the tunnel.

She walked all the way down to the basement. No warning lights. No alarms blaring. In fact, no sign of anything wrong. Unless you counted the entire space being empty.

A screech from above. Leah flinched- jumping in fear.

“Joey!” She called out, realizing in a rush of relief. The pterodactyl shrieked again. “Stars, I hope you didn’t eat the others.”

Leah did not see the Cyberwoman watching her from the shadows.

 

==HBA==

 

“Ianto, stop.” Jack shouted.

Ianto rushed into the main lobby. He ignored the cries of his team. They didn’t matter to him. Yes they had pulled him out of the lockdown, but they had done it by leaving Lisa to die. It shouldn’t matter what she was. They should be trying to help her!

Those were his thoughts as he pushed open the door.

“She can’t have survived that attack.” Gwen yelled out, chasing after Ianto.

“You’ve got to let her go!” Chloe yelled. “She’s lost!” Chloe should know. She had been there too- she remembered all her friends and coworkers that died that day. She remembered their screams. She remembered fearing that Leah was already dead. She remembered the relief at seeing her niece alive, panicked and stressed and heartbroken but alive.

“I used my initiative. I’m sorry.” Tosh apologized to Jack.

“When I want you to think for yourself, I’ll tell you.” Jack scolded.

“Maybe if you’d told me your plan, I wouldn’t have done it.” Tosh snapped.

When they made it into the lobby, Ianto was holding a gun. He was at the door to the basement. At the first rush of the team, Ianto at the gun at them.

“Ianto, don’t be stupid.” Gwen warned him.

Ianto shook his head. “I’ve nothing left to lose.”

“There’s always something left to lose.” Jack warned him.

“I’m going back in to save her. Anybody tries to stop me, I’ll shoot them.” Ianto promised them.

“Ianto, put the gun down.” Gwen instructed.

Before Ianto could refuse, Jack lashed out. He disarmed Ianto, refusing risk to his own safety. He’d been Deleted three times by a Cyberwoman. Being shot wasn’t going to stop him.

Lucky for them, they didn’t need to see Jack die again tonight. He took the gun, holding Ianto’s shoulder as he pushed him against the wall like a common thug.

“You make a threat like that, you’d better be prepared to follow it through. See?” Jack raised the gun at Ianto.

He felt rage in him from that day. He felt rage because he remembered that day too, for so many reasons. It was one of the shittier days of the year. Seeing Rose’s name on the list of the dead, seeing Terra and the Doctor as MIA. There had been a suspected sighting over Christmas- but nothing. They were gone. They hadn’t come back. Cybermen had killed Rose.

Jack remembered his days in space, seeing all that the Cybermen would do in the future. Time Agents were warned about things like that- to not be involved- to die a human was better than to live as one of those things. It was horrific then, seeing what they had already done. It was horrific now, seeing what they were doing to his team and to Ianto.

“You disobey me now, I really will shoot you.” Jack promised.

“Get off me.” Ianto pleaded, tears mixing with the sweat on his face.

“You want to go back in there? You go in to  _ finish the job _ .” Jack ordered. “If she’s still alive, you execute her.” Jack released his arm.

“No way.” Ianto whimpered.

“You brought this down on us.” Jack reminded him. “You hid her. You hid yourself from us. Now it’s time for you to stand as part of the team.”

“Jack-” Gwen began, putting her hand on his arm.

“The girl you loved has gone. Your loyalty is to us now.” Jack warned him. He ignored a traitorous part of his mind. One that brought up brown hair, golden eyes, and a scream of his name like losing a heart.

“You can’t order me to do that.” Ianto cried, pleading with the empathy that Jack forced himself to hide.

“ _ You execute her or I’ll execute you both _ .” Jack hissed.

“I won’t do it. You can’t make me.” Ianto shook his head. “You like to think you’re a hero, but you’re the biggest monster of all.”

_ This was that darkness. _

_ The things that Terra wanted to save me from. _

_ Well no one is around to save these people. _

_ No one is around to stop it. Except us. _

“I’m giving you ten minutes, then we’re coming in.” Jack ordered. “Pick it up.”

Ianto reached down, picking a gun up off the floor. He gave one last scathing look to Jack before walking through the door. He closed it behind himself to give himself some level of distance.

“How can you ask him?” Tosh began.

“I don’t need your opinion.” Jack snarled.

He didn’t need it right now.

He was falling back on what was right. On what was needed.

Right now the world needed to be saved.

His heart would come later.

He turned around to glare at them, to demand any of the four members question his authority now, when he saw something that made his stomach twist in horror.

At his expression, they all turned too.

“Oh my god.” Chloe spoke up, sounding horrified.

Pizza boxes.

_ Leah always picked up their pizzas. _

 

==HBA==

 

Downstairs, Ianto walked into a battle already taking place.

Lisa was stomping after her target. Leah, Ianto realized. Oh god he’d ordered pizzas!

Leah was holding up a metallic device. It sparked and spurted. She had blood on her face, clotting in her hair and leaking down the side of her head.

Lisa looked no better. Fighting a pterodactyl had left a lot of wounds on her. Whatever Leah was inflicting seemed to be working too. 

Ianto was so scared. “Lisa!” He called out.

Leah turned over to him. “Ianto what the fuck?!” She screamed, her voice as panicked as her face. “Cyberman!? Door wide open!? _ You ordered pizza in this mess?!” _

“Ianto.” Lisa spoke. Her voice robotic and synthesized. Ianto missed her old voice. The old Lisa. The human Lisa. He had just wanted her back. Was that so wrong? “Help me.” She turned back to Leah. She raised her arm. Sparks tinged along her fingers.

Leah raised her own weapon. She activated the baton like device- it sparked too.

“Hostile force detected.” Lisa intoned. “You are an enemy of the Cybermen.”

Leah snarled. “ _ You  _ dare threaten me when it was your kind who slaughtered so many that day!? All those humans- they didn’t know any better! You should’ve died with them!”

Lisa marched forward.

“Lisa don’t!” Ianto ran towards them. “Please, don’t. She’s a child.”

Lisa glared coldly away from him. She was still focused on Leah. “My sensors detect a binary vascular system. She is unknown. Her systems will not work with Cyber conversion. Our last unknown with a binary vascular was the Doctor and Terra Johnson. They brought Cybermen to the Daleks.”

“See Ianto?” Leah stated. She pointed her weapon at Lisa. “She remembers that. Only a Cyberman connected to the hive mind could know what happened. That only happens when a human is converted. There’s no going back from that.”

“But it wasn’t a full conversion.” Ianto argued, weakly, at Leah. “You see? The process was stopped. The power went down. She- She could-”

“No she can’t.” Leah shook her head. “You’ve got to believe me, she can’t. Even if the process stopped, they took away the most important bits of her first. Whoever you think she is, she’s gone.”

Lisa’s arm blasted out an energy beam.

Leah ducked to avoid it.

“Lisa you need to stop!” Ianto pleaded. “Please. She’s just a girl.”

“She is an enemy. She must be deleted.” Lisa countered.

And Ianto’s heart broke.

“You’re not Lisa.” He realized, and wasn’t it just the final straw. Because Lisa would never have done this, not for any reason. Lisa would never kill anyone, especially not a young girl. From how Leah was bleeding, she had already hurt Leah.

He raised the gun.

Lisa tilted her head. “What are you doing? Ianto, it’s me. You wouldn’t shoot me. I did this for you.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Lisa.” Ianto sobbed.

“We can be upgraded together.” Lisa promised him. “I must delete the unknown-”

Shots fired.

 

==HBA==

 

Leah was hiding away when the shots went off. Her hearts were racing in her chest. Her stomach wanted to vomit. She was sure she was about to die.

Ianto crumbled to his knees. The body of Lisa fell before him. Behind them both, the five members of Torchwood fired at the Cyberman. 

Leah flinched at everyone shot. In her mind all she heard was war. War she had not lived but saw in her visions. Wars that was eternal, that had no end. She heard the screams of Cybermen- all kinds of Cybermen that did not stop their conquest of the galaxies.

The shots kept firing.

With a Cyberman, one took no risks.

She felt hands on her arms. Leah flinched from them, screaming in pain. Lisa had surprised her in a blitz attack. Leah had barely stayed conscious, running about the basement to avoid being converted. She had borrowed a weapon from the stolen alien tech room, quickly equipping it for fast electric charge.

Still the Cyber relentlessly pursued her. Not for conversion, oh no. If anything it was her second heart that saved her from that awful fate.

One of the many things she’d learned at school, was that Cybermen could not make more Cybermen from Gallefreyians. Their systems were too different. She remembered being cautioned that it didn’t mean they would be avoided during conversion, but rather they would be deleted.

She had no idea what that meant until Canary Wharf. Until hearing humans screaming from the pain. On seeing her future self run into that battle. Seeing the fight from her eyes as the Void opened. The Cybermen took no prisoners, or hostages. You were either convertible, or you were a stepping stone to their next upgrade.

The person reaching for her was Aunt Chloe.

Leah’s eyes watered. “Aunt Chloe...”

“Oh sweetie.” Chloe pulled her in for a hug. Leah began to sob onto her shoulder.

“I was just bringing the pizza.” Leah sobbed. “I didn’t- oh stars why- why is it here?”

Chloe brushed on her hair, still holding Leah close. She rocked the Time Lady on the ground. Besides them, Ianto sobbed for the Lisa that had been.

“Why?” Leah cried.

“I’m sorry, Le.” Chloe whispered. Leah could only cry harder. “I’m so sorry.”

Above her head, Chloe glared Ianto’s way. The man did not notice. He was still sobbing.

 

==HBA==

 

Leah was wrapped up under a shock blanket. A cup of cocoa had been placed in her hands. She had not sipped it, instead staring down at the foamy top. Her aunt had made it how she liked it- extra chocolate, extra foam, no cream.

Her aunt had not left her side the whole night. Leah was certain if Aunt Chloe moved even a few steps away Leah would have a panic attack. It was everything she had not to think about that cold room, locked away from the world, let out only by the blood sacrifice of those lost to the Cybermen and Daleks. 

Now they were sitting in Torchwood. The Captain’s office.

She was a prisoner all over again. At least this time they gave her the decency of one last meal before locking her away.

“Aunt Chloe, huh?” The Captain noted.

Leah did not look up.

“Funny thing- I finally checked up on your address.” He tossed a file onto his desk. “It’s a PO box. Not a real house. The school you go to? Impressive forged records, but they’re still forged. Gonna guess the med-report you had done was fake too.”

Leah continued saying nothing. Her aunt was so silent, the air around her seemed so cold. It took away the heat from her drink, Leah mused to herself.

“I gotta ask. Was anything in it real? Or was it all just fill-in-the-blank- for lies?” The Captain questioned.

“Jack I-”

“I have had enough lies today, Chloe.” The Captain warned. “Don’t tell me anymore.”

“Don’t blame her.” Leah defended, speaking down towards her lap.

“Did you want the hot seat? Cause I can give you the hot seat.” The Captain countered. Leah tightened her hold on her mug, ignoring her racing hearts. “Leah Luna-Johnson, daughter of Leanna Johnson and Thelma Luna.”

“Don’t hurt them.” Leah warned him.

He kept going. “Records show you were adopted into their care at age ten. Status prior is unknown, suspected life on the streets, possible foster care but no one could find any trace.” The Captain leaned forward. “Want me to tell you what I think?”

“Does my opinion matter anymore?” Leah snarked.

“Leah.” Chloe scolded.

“No, Aunt Chloe.” Leah looked up from the mug to glare at her aunt. “If they’re going to lock me away for good, then they better learn how to take it from me. I’m not a weak little kid anymore.” She braced herself, looking up to glare at the Captain. The person that made her feel sick, and not just from his impossibility. “So go ahead. Tell me how I’m illegal just by existing on this planet.”

The Captain continued to glare fiercely at her. Leah reminded herself she fought a Cyberman an hour ago, and held her own. She could handle an immortal man.

“I think you landed here, five years ago. I think Officer Johnson found you on the streets, took you in to live with her wife. From what I can see, Thelma home schooled you but that wasn’t enough, was it? Smart thing like you, you were learning faster than she could handle. No, you had to build your own tech to teach you. And eventually there wasn’t enough tech to keep up.” The Captain turned his glare to Chloe. She winced. “You stole from Torchwood One. Understandable, I can see why you’d do it. Kids gotta learn, after all. But you got sloppy. Someone noticed. They reported you- they reported _ her _ .”

Chloe’s cheeks were wet, Leah noted. Leah wanted to punch the Captain in the face. She was so mad. She was furious. He had no right to make Chloe feel this guilt all over again.

“ _ If it’s alien, it’s ours. _ ” The Captain recalled. “Torchwood One’s old adage. You know it, don’t you? Bet they said it a lot over in Canary Wharf.”

Leah glared at him.

“And you got out. The same day Ianto did.” The Captain stated.

Leah looked down at her mug.

“Where are you from?”

“You can’t ask her that-” Chloe began, tears still in her eyes.

“Don’t question me.” The Captain ordered.

Leah gripped the mug tighter. “I don’t have to answer to you.”

“Yes you do.” The Captain countered.

“Then make me.” Leah challenged. She glared hatefully into his eyes. It was the fear of her own reaction that kept her sitting in her chair.

Yet as she glared, the Captain lessened his. Dropping levels and levels of it to expose something inside that Leah would rather have never seen. It was that face she saw only in her most disquieting of flashes.

“Your brains, all that tech know-how, only one species I know like that.” The Captain stated.

Leah glared in cold defense.

“How many hearts do you have?” The Captain asked.

“If you’re asking that, you already know.” Leah countered.

The Captain has all he needed to lock her away for good. Leah sipped at her hot cocoa, savoring every last drop her tongue would get to taste. 

 

==HBA==

 

She was given a check-up by Harper. Her aunt watched from the sidelines, as a guardian to a minor. He bandages her head wound which wasn’t as serious as it would’ve been on a human. Well making a Time Lord bleed at all was scary but better to clean it up now.

Harper was snorting, soon after he checked for Leah’s resting heart rate. “Blimey, two hearts. He wasn’t lying.” Harper put in the results. He gave a look towards Chloe. She gave him a look right back. 

Leah’s hands wanted to shake.

“Your blood pressure is crazy high.” Harper noted.

Leah hummed. By their standards, it was indeed quite high.

Harper scoffed, snorting as he turned to the file. He wasn’t used to working with aliens that were alive, Leah guessed.

She spared a glance out of the medical pit. Gwen Cooper was staring down at her, confusion and suspicion and worry in her eyes. Leah felt bad. She hadn’t wanted to be found out. She hadn’t wanted anyone to feel like they were betraying her.

Or were they?

Technically they were still loyal to the cause. The cause of the human race’s need for superiority.

Leah was a traitor to their cause, as far as she could see.

Better they lock her up then risk another global take over.

“Anything else I should know?” Harper asked, grinning smugly at her.

Leah looked away from Gwen. She narrowed her eyes at the file he was completing. She didn’t want to reveal weaknesses of her species, but if the need came she would rather not face a Final Death. “I’m allergic to aspirin.”

Harper nodded, writing that down.

When Leah looked up, Gwen was gone.

 

==HBA==

 

The next morning, Leah Luna-Johnson walked into work. She fixed her outfit, straightening the lines of her jacket as the large round door rolled open. She stepped in, her aunt at her back. Chloe walked toward her desk, refusing to be afraid in front of her coworkers.

They had no secrets now. All of their dirty laundry had been hung out to dry.

Leah was honestly just so happy she wasn’t in a cell besides Janet. 

She glanced up, seeing the Captain standing beside Gwen in his office. She gave them a curt nod before heading to her station. She had been changed from the tech intern to the alien tech intern, analyzing the technology that fell from the Rift along with other things that they had found over the years that the Captain could not identify or get to work.

It was the only condition for letting her back onto the streets.

As for her aunt’s job, Leah had to not use her bugs to hear classified intel.

It was an unspoken agreement that she would not be used to target the Doctor. The Captain seemed to realize another way Torchwood One had gone wrong.

_ The Doctor is never locked by you in a building, you were locked in one with him. And God help anyone if you locked in his friends too. _

Leah went to work. She pointedly did not look at Ianto, the reason her and Aunt Chloe’s secrets were revealed to their enemy.

 

==HBA==

 

Up in his office, Jack was speaking with Gwen.

“You’d never have shot him. Not really.” Gwen told him.

Jack glared down Ianto’s way. “Wouldn’t I?”

“Would you have shot me if I’d gone to stand by him?” Gwen asked.

“But you didn’t.” Jack countered.

“If I had, though.” Gwen suggested.

“But you didn’t.”

“Will he stay?” Gwen decided instead. “All that deception because he couldn’t bear to live without her. Chloe did the same for her niece, lied to all of Torchwood because her niece is an alien. So, have you ever loved anyone that much?”

Jack looked away.

“When she had hold of you, I thought, just for a moment, I thought maybe you could die after all.” Gwen admitted.

“Want to know a secret?” Jack asked in a low voice. He didn’t want to admit this. “So did I. And just for a second there, I felt so alive.”

He looked out his window to Leah Luna-Johnson. The Time Lady with familiar shaded eyes. With the same kind of spitfire that she’d stare down God himself to protect her family. That as much as she hated it, there was joy on her face as she was surrounded by alien tech.

For just a little bit, Jack had Terra back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m just so mean to people. And this took longer because I got the end of the semester anxiety, so that can fuck off whenever it likes.


	7. Dear Future Me

This week the aliens were fairies.

Fairies.

Because of course they were.

They weren’t the happy fairies, just like Latshaw wasn’t the  _ Twilight _ brand of vampire.

These fairies- the Chosen Ones- weren’t happy little twinkly lights. Throughout time and space, they stole children to join them. The children would live forever, yes, outside of the normal lines of time and space. They just wouldn’t be human anymore.

There had been a little girl. Jasmine. Loved by her mom and friends. The Chosen Ones had declared her their own. The Captain had figured this out quite fast.

To the Torchwood team, that had been a problem.

To the Captain, it was an inevitability.

To Leah...she had to see it to believe it.

She had thought (stupidly, she admitted after the fact) that if she went after the fairies there was a chance they would let the girl go.

Instead she was confronted by monsters. They had lashed out at Leah- who was supposed to have stayed in the weapons fault testing them. 

The Captain had been enraged at Leah’s chosen course of action. Leah had no defence. She was in shock, you see. For the fairies? They’d said she was chosen too.

But not to be a fairy.

 

==HBA==

 

“What do you mean? Chosen for what?”

_ “Destiny. A fate. Such a sad fate for you.” _

“What is it. Tell me!”

_ “You can’t escape her. She’ll find you wherever you hide.” _

“Who! Tell me!”

_ “The Fallen Star is so clever. She always finds her chosen. Her vessels of promised peace, only giving way to war and pain. They always give into her.” _

“Well not me!”

The fairies had laughed.  _ “You can’t stop her. You won’t stop us.” _

“Just watch me!”

_ “The vessel thinks she is so clever. Thinks she can hide. Thinks she can outsmart the Star. Silly vessel.” _

“You’re not getting your hands on Jasmine!”

“Leah!” The Captain shouted, running at her in a panic.

 

==HBA==

 

Her work space was no longer a desk. It was anywhere she could sit in the weapons fault and the ‘TBD’ space. Surrounded by shelves and shelves of alien tech. She had most of them cataloged. Useful, space junk, weapons, things like that. The Captain had requested it as such.

She hadn’t spoken much to the rest of the team, not since she’d been exposed. There had been pitying looks from Gwen, who was of the opinion that Leah was a child and was therefore in need of protecting. Harper had been much surer in his opinion that Leah share the cell beside Janet. Sato always seemed to be on the fence of feeling sorry and being suspicious.

Occasionally Ianto would try to spark up conversation. Leah wouldn’t say much in reply, outside of the human acceptable small talk.

She’d spoken to her mothers too. Leah wondered when it would be a good idea to tell them she’d been exposed to Torchwood. That her safety was subject to the wills of Captain Harkness.

Leah had no reason to wonder. During the call, it was clear that her aunt had snitched. Drat. Her mothers were furious at first, coming down to a level of grief as if Leah had already been executed. As if killing a Time Lady would be a problem- she would just come back to annoy them. Leah had done her best to assure her mothers, promising she would stay safe in her new job.

But Captain Harkness had his opinion too. The most important, if some people were to be believed. Leah couldn’t tell what it was.

Until he came for her with the fairies.

 

==HBA==

 

Little Jasmine ran away with the fairies.

They had lost, today.

There had been no other choice.

 

==HBA==

 

They had discovered it all by Gwen and Leah meeting an old friend of Harkness. He had tried using a clever lie, that it was his father’s friend, but Leah caught on fast. They hadn’t been friends, the Captain had been in love with her.

The Captain, despite all his player looks, was very much a hopeless romantic.

Leah learned very quickly there was one girl he loved more than all the others. One who would one day show up to explain everything wrong with Jack. And he would know she was here, because he had a Time Lord’s hand.

 

==HBA==

 

She felt it, some nights.

Felt the foreboding air around her.

Like that ghost from the machine hadn’t truly left.

Like her future self was still around- infecting the air. Like Superman with his kryptonite. There was something wrong with the whole world. Walking anywhere made Leah think she was walking through

She wrote off the Chosen Ones warnings as just prophecies about her next body. Why would she assume anything else?

 

==HBA==

 

Then the Torchwood Tram went to the countryside on missing persons cases.

 

==HBA==

 

All of them could’ve been dead.

Her aunt was covered in cuts, because the village had tried to  _ sample the meat _ .

Humanity was sick and vile.

A whole village of people. For generations on generations were stealing people to use as food. It make Leah  _ beyond  _ sick.

She had met back up with Latshaw in a  _ rage _ . She had wondered if Latshaw was the vampire equivalent of a  _ ‘drinking buddy’ _ . 

He never drank blood in front of her. That was a saving grace. Nor did he drink blood from people that did not consent. He was probably the only being on this fucked up planet that asked permission.

She paced in front of him, fuming and ranting about the disgusting city. She ranted about the problems with humanity- that these people would probably get off scot free.

Latshaw apparently had only one comment to her opinions. “You’re so different from her. Sometimes its subtle, but now it’s so obvious.”

That set off Leah on a new kind of rant. A new kind of rage that she didn’t even know she had inside.

_ There  _ it was. The truth. What so many around her were waiting for. What the world itself waited for with bated breath. The next one. Her second.

_ Terra _ .

A girl who Leah could barely even remember right now- whose words were vague and foggy but important words stuck. In visions she was looking through her eyes, seeing as she saw. She saw the Captain as an ordinary man _ - _

_ “No such thing as an ordinary human” _

-with people around her that were just so the same as him-

_ “Darcy Anderson, I’m the whore.” _

-Leah just couldn’t get it.

She didn’t understand any of Terra’s choices.

Much less did she approve.

And now she was stuck with so many of  _ Terra’s _ mistakes. All the things she had done wrong were walking around Leah’s live, seeping into her every waking moment like a thick fog.

Even her friend. The one person Leah could turn to. He was just another one of  _ Terra’s _ cast offs. Things that, as a Time Lady, should have been corrected. 

“How did you meet her?” Leah prompted.

Latshaw blew a breath from his mouth. “You never ask easy questions do you?”

Leah kept her eyes focused on him.

He turned to look at the city below.

“Back on that day...you knew her. You definitely did.” Leah stated. “You told me yourself.”

“She said I had to, so you would follow me.” Latshaw explained.

“How did you meet her at all?” Leah questioned. “You trust her so explicitly. And she you. With her very future. That trust doesn’t come from a single day.”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean? How can you not  _ know _ how you met someone?”

“She showed me a vision. Of us meeting. It was-” Latshaw stopped himself.

“Tell me!”

“She was in a bad place.”

“You won’t tell me what that place was, then?”

“Isn’t there some time travel rule about knowing your future?” Latshaw snapped.

”I’m a Time Lady. Those rules are ingrained into my very DNA.” Leah spat.

Latshaw scoffed.

Leah grabbed his arm.

She did not see his memory.

She saw another one of  _ her’s _ .

 

==HBA==

 

_ “Let her go! Please don’t kill her!” _

_ “Why should I? I’m hungry.” _

_ “No, no!” A woman was sobbing. The high pitch was grating on the ears.  _

_ “Kill me instead, please!” _

_ “A lot of others have offered. Why should I  _ take _ from  _ you _? It’s making her heart race. Their blood goes so much faster when they’re afraid.” _

_ “I’d give you a fight.” _

_ “An ant cannot crush a boot.” _

_ “But the person inside can still feel it’s bite.” _

_ “Oh you’re a clever little ant aren’t you?” _

_ “Please...please no...” _

_ Screaming. Screaming and blood. She screamed so loud... _

_ “The night I turned, I saved a man’s life. I know, impossible right? I was a different person back then. After I turned, the man I saved became my first  _ feast _.” _

_ More screaming. But...but more blood too. So much pain. _

_ “Can't you imagine it? He thought he was safe, I was a child. It was a complete surprise when I _ ripped the throat out.”

_ The woman cried out her last. _

_ The ant proved his bite. _

 

==HBA==

 

Leah pulled back.

Latshaw snarled in her face. “Are you happy? Lashing out at a vampire, what the hell is wrong-” He heard her hearts beating rapidly, racing in a panic. He saw the blood drain from her face. “What did you see?” He prompted.

Leah couldn’t answer.

She was too busy puking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small Worlds and Countrycide were being difficult. So I combined them into one mini-chapter.


	8. A Thousand Thunderstorms

Leah hated her job.

Okay that’s a lie.

She loved her job.

She hated her coworkers.

_ (Okay maybe not all of them. Ianto was nice when he started talking to her again, bringing her hot chocolate without request. Still so full of guilt about Lisa. And Gwen was nice too when she forgot Leah was an alien) _

Aunt Chloe had assured her that was a universally shared opinion on Earth. 

Leah just didn’t understand humanity- why they behaved like they did. Why were Gwen and Harper hiding the fact they were sleeping together, or why they were sleeping together at all. She couldn’t understand why Ianto and the Captain weren’t shagging on the regular, given the predisposition of the 52nd century man. She didn’t understand why her aunt didn’t just admit that she wanted to go out on dates but felt obligated to watch over Leah.

She didn’t understand any of it.

She also didn’t understand why the system for filing the weapons was just _ ‘if it fits, it sits’. _ What was good about that?! How did these humans _ function _ with this crap before Leah was dragged along? Oh right, they hadn’t, that’s why they let Suzie use a murder-glove.

At least the Captain was getting better at checking for those things.

Now Leah could properly organize it all.

She could make sure the truly deadly things were left in permanent disrepair, tucked away in a dark corner or the sheves. 

She made sure weapons humans could use nonlethally were closer to the front. Weapons that if used by humans would kill them were kept in the middle. 

She could repair the rest to her heart’s content.

She liked repairing things.

She wanted to repair and build things when she was older. Back on Gallifrey, she always imagined herself working alongside the time capsules. She saw herself repairing them, healing their wounds so they could go off in transit as they liked.

She wondered if that was why the Doctor brought her future self along. Someone who could repair things like a time capsule.

Only Leah had never learned.

So neither did her future self

But Leah knew things now. Knew how to fix all of it- for whatever purpose it was good for. Whether that was the inventor’s intention or not.

 

==HBA==

 

See, Leah didn’t like her coworkers.

Her coworkers- or polite jailers- didn’t like her. Not since finding out Leah was an alien. Then it was all cold shoulders and long distances. That was fine. They did the same to Chloe, which was less fine.

So Leah thought it suspicious that Toshiko Sato was coming quite close to the tech vault.

Yet Sato came close.

Close enough for a chat.

Leah was suspicious of being that wanted to chat for no reason. That had never left her anywhere good.

The fellow tech geek smiled politely at Leah. It was an awkward hesitant sort of politeness. As if, not even she herself believed she was doing what she was doing.

Leah could understand that, talking to humans was hard. Talking to aliens that you’re trained to hunt down must be hard. Did she sympathize? Hell no. She was one of those aliens.

“Hello Leah.” Sato greeted. She raised her hand for a shake, then thought better.

Leah did not want to return the greeting. She just knew her mom would be so disappointed. “Hey.”

“Just...just wondering...” Sato began. She bit at her lip, straightening it out in a too tense smile. “Have you done anything for the hardware from the burial site?”

Leah snorted. The latest Torchwood case involved a dead man ( _ not woman, as Harper got wrong) _ having something shoved through his chest  _ (not shot, like Harper also got wrong. Gwen and Chloe were already giving him a hard time. It was a positive) _ at a burial site recently uncovered. Torchwood was called as they suspected something alien.

“A site with a dead human and unknown alien tech. Yeah you guys would hand that right over to me.” Leah snarked. She put away another large piece of tech. Something just lethal enough it would do in a Cyberman-level threat.

Sato didn’t deny it. “Right, yes. Because you-” She stopped herself.

Leah could hear the rest.  _ ‘Because you are one. Because you would use it on us. The tech wasn’t even that deadly it was just a-’ _

She felt something.

Not a big thing. Just something small, and gentle. Like someone trying to peek through a door hole to look inside a house. 

_ Someone was trying to look inside her head _ .

Leah turned back.

The tech geek had an odd look on her face now. Confused. Disappointed? No...well yes but not quite that. 

_ Disturbed _ .

“Why did you want to talk to me?” Leah asked, eyeing Sato more cautiously.

“What species were you again?” Sato asked. “I don’t think I’ve come across something like you in our records.”

_ ‘It doesn’t matter. _

_ I’ll never see the red skies or dome cities with this again _

_ Not with this face.’ _

“I should get back to work.” Leah insisted, subtly warning the Torchwood employee to back off. “We both should.”

Sato rubbed the necklace she was wearing. Leah felt that feeling again. Of something trying to peek inside.

But she was a Time Lady.

Her species practically invented thought-invasion.

She covered the little peephole in her mind- like anyone would when someone was looking in. She added a bit of a kick to the door.

Sato winced, flinching back. She let go of the necklace. “Yes. Work. I have...Jack asked me to-”

Leah turned to her work. As if they weren’t bad enough, they had would-be telepaths on the team just casually trying to dig into her mind for personal information.

“Why did you never admit what you are?” Sato asked. Because apparently she didn’t know when to quit.

Leah seethed. She kept it in.

“If we had known-”

“You did know.” Leah snapped. If her work was going to be disturbed, then she would disturb right back. “Or Torchwood One did. They found me through my aunt. Took me from my human mother’s arms.  _ Five months _ I was stuck in your cells- just like your Weevil. Nothing more than a lab rat you didn’t want dead. Your kind, all you know is taking. You never think of asking, reaching out with a friendly hand to what’s out there. You lure them in by thinking it’s safe and  _ that  _ is when you  _ strike them down _ .”

Sato flinched back from her. For a moment, Leah thought she had used her mind to project her rage. A quick showed that it had all been her tone.

“The only reason I’m not back in that cell, is because my aunt works here. Not all aliens get that privilege.” Leah ranted. “Worse yet, when you’ve all decided I’m not a fun pet anymore, it’s her you’ll kill first. Then my moms. My family. Dead at the whims of a man that can’t decide which coworker he wants to shag. I’ll be shoved into a cell if I’m lucky. Under Harper’s scalpel if I’m not.”

She stood in front of Sato now. She glared her bright amber eyes into Sato’s dark brown.

“You tell me, Toshiko Sato. Who in their right mind signs on for  _ that _ ?”

Sato looked too stunned to even realize a tear had fallen from her eye. “Nobody.”

“Get out.” Leah ordered, from both her mind and her work.

Sato obeyed, scurrying away like her whole world was shaking and she needed to find safety.

 

==HBA==

 

Leah was mad.

She thought she hated her coworkers before.

No,  _ this _ was hate.

Sato had brought that thing into Torchwood. A fucking Arcateenian. That she had been fucking.

Arcateenians weren’t bad. Leah just didn’t like them. She always got those questions wrong on tests.

A fucking Arcateenian had been in here. Worse yet, it’s tech had touched Leah’s mind. She wished brain bleach was a real thing. She needed to feel clean.

After a whole dramatic showdown, the Arcateenian has been sent by the Captain to the center of the sun.

_ “It shouldn’t be hot. I mean, we sent her there at night and everything.” _ He had flippantly told a crying Sato.

The necklace had been letting her read minds. She hadn’t just used it on Leah. Everyone. Saw that Gwen and Harper were shagging, saw something incredibly personal in Ianto and Chloe that had them each speaking privately with her, and then she spoke with Leah.

Not that Leah was ready to talk to her.

Or anyone.

Irritating her captors was her most perfectly honed skill. 

Sato had heavy tears on her cheeks. Her eyes were red from crying. She hadn’t stopped since  _ ‘Mary’ _ died. Leah thought Sato a mind-savager, looking at things not her business, but she didn’t deserve  _ that _ pain.

“Leah. I am...so sorry.” Sato apologized. “I know I shouldn’t have looked. It was a  _ massive  _ breach of your privacy. You were right. We...Torchwood has taken a lot from you.”

“Your right. You have. My kind has a thing against unconsented looks into the minds of others.” Leah stated.

Sato winced. “I don’t deserve forgiveness-”

“No one does.” Leah replied easily.

Sato choked on a small sob. “No human...I can’t believe what I’ve seen.”

Leah shrugged. “You’re all so incredibly flawed. You ignore it, hoping the others won’t notice even when they have those same flaws.”

Sato looked like she was going to start crying again. Leah hated dealing with crying people.

“If it helps, you didn’t see anything that wasn’t obvious.” Leah excused. “Those two aren’t as clever at hiding as they think, Ianto has seemed weighted, and my aunt  _ definitely  _ needed to be told off. You beat me by a weekend.”

Sato sniffled, wiping her cheek.

Had that worked? Leah couldn’t tell. Fucj she’d screwed this up. She was supposed to be mad at Sato, not comforting her!

“Leah?” She asked. “I know I have no right to ask...I Just what was your species? Jack never said.”

Ignoring the question, Leah walked around Sato. “Couldn’t see that in my head?” There. Anger back.

“I couldn’t  _ hear  _ anything...but...I felt something.” Sato admitted hesitantly.

That got Leah turning to face Sato. “But what.” Leah demanded. “You looked in my head without asking. Tell me what you felt.”

Sato swallowed. “It felt like a thunderstorm but something worse behind it. A thousand thunderstorms all lying in wait for something...I don’t know what.”

Leah was too stunned to even snap at her. She watched numbly as Sato walked off to speak with the Captain. The necklace later cracked into pieces under her boot.

 

==HBA==

 

She didn’t sleep well that night.

A psychic storm...that felt like a thousand.

Just what was Future Her like?

To create a psychic power that felt like a thousand minds at once?

People with power like that...those were the kind of things that made you into a pariah. Made you as infamous as the Doctor, or even the Master. A being that was so powerful wouldn’t be a Time Lord anymore, they’d be something worse. Something that left only destruction in the wake behind it, and unspeakable horror when you saw it coming.

Leah didn’t know if she wanted to be that kind of Time Lady.

She just wanted to be a repair girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Hope everyone is okay in the crisis. I'm living with a house of 8, all my jobs are closed, and the internet is tight. But I'm gonna write fanfic even if it kills the wifi!  
> In case anyone’s interested, feel free to read the rest of the stories in The Fallen Star verse. Now that I’ve got three weeks of free time there’s suddenly a lot of writing I can do (but watch as I do known of it, ha)


	9. Pros and Cons Of Necromancy

Her tablet pinged. Leah opened the notification, tuning out her aunt’s disparaging stare. The team was out on a case right now. Chloe was left behind for Janet duty. 

Her old scan searching for  ‘Torchwood’  was still scanning. 

It had picked them up again.

Leah gawked at the image pulled up on her tablet.

Two bloody bodies were laid out on a blood soaked bed. That only was horrifying, but outside of Torchwood’s usual MO. The only thing connecting them to it was that whoever had done this had written out in blood above the bodies one word.

‘Torchwood’

Well, at least Leah was never bored.

==HBA==

She liked Gwen. The copper was very nice, very ‘Not Torchwood’. She was the first Torchwood agent that Leah actually liked. Her aunt didn’t count, she barely counted as a Torchwood employee.

But Gwen’s status was revoked when she brought up using the glove. All to question the dead on who killed them. Playing god once again. Treating the lives of people- innocent people, by all accounts, with no connection to Torchwood except the bloody word on their wall- like toys to pick up and put down to their own wants.

That was disappointing.

Leah figured she still had Ianto, for all his flaws in loving a Cyberman.

Somehow, Gwen actually convinced the others to do it. Despite them giving repeated warnings, saying that was how it started from Costello way back when. Simple little revivals, until Costello became obsessed. They didn’t want to risk it. Gwen had still made them turn tide.

Leah stuck up her courage. She marched into the Captain’s office. He was unlocking the vault for where the worst of the worst was tucked away, in the most secure room in the building. And he had left the door unlocked. The implications weren’t lost on her. 

“Go ahead. Make yourself at home.” The Captain greeted warmly. 

“You can’t do it.” Leah warned.

The Captain pulled out the box. “Everyone else is on their way. If you don’t want to stick around, feel free to take a sick day.”

Like she would, in times like this. “You know you can’t do it. I saw what it did to Suzie Costello-”

“You saw one side of it. A side you weren’t even supposed to see, not as a civilian.” The Captain countered.

Leah scoffed. She didn’t believe for one second that if she had been in their basement, put beside Janet, that she wouldn’t have been asked about the glove. A glove that can revive the dead, seemed perfect for someone in her kind to know about. “Are you telling me it wasn’t like that? That I didn’t hear an impassioned speech from her after killing people so she could master this glove?”

“I’m not saying what happened was right. The glove didn’t make Suzie like that.”

“It’s a power you can’t control. Death is not a toy for you to play with as you like.” Leah snapped at the Captain.

He was still pulling out the glove. “You’re one to talk.” The Captain noted.

“So are you.” Leah snapped back. 

The Captain pulled out the box.

Leah was disgusted. She stormed out of the office. All the while, she had the Captain’s eyes on her back.

==HBA==

The Captain used the glove- The Risen Mitten, as coined by Ianto- and it failed.

Gwen and Leah were apparently the only two that hadn’t tried it before. So guess who volunteered for a go.

The first victim died again before giving anything helpful.

The second had given a description of his attacker, and the only known associate of his attacker.

A man named Max, and a woman named Suzie.

Leah had known this wouldn’t go well.

==HBA==

Leah ran her finger on the cover of a book. Her aunt had picked up a book from Costello’s vault- a simple book of the complete poems by Emily Dickinson. Apparently Chloe had thought Leah would like it.

Yeah, Leah would love a book owned by a serial killer. 

...okay maybe she did but this killer would’ve killed her too, so maybe think it through!

The corpse of Suzie Costello was laid out in front of them. Ianto, Sato, and Harper stood by medical equipment. Gwen and the Captain were standing by Costello’s head. Chloe stood with Leah above the medical pit.

“Do we all get frozen? Torchwood staff. When we die, do we all get kept?” Gwen asked. 

“Rules and regulations.” The Captain stated. 

“You’re not freezing mine.” Leah informed him. “We burn our dead-”

“There are whole empires out there who’d rip this world apart for just one cell-”

“-obviously I meant I did it.”

“You’re going to burn it, and all those Daleks-”

“Leah?” Chloe poked her arm. 

Leah stopped herself from jumping from her skin. She hadn’t known she had zoned out again. That was almost becoming a problem. Could her future self shut up for five minutes?

Harper snorted. “Yeah, we tend to cut up the dead aliens we get.”

Leah tightened her grip on the poetry book.

They won’t cut me up

“Shut up, Owen.” Chloe snapped.

I’ll be gone with a new face before they even get the chance

“She’s still a kid.” Gwen scolded him.

Even if I can’t

“And an alien.” Harper countered. “What, have we all forgotten our actual jobs?”

I won’t give Harper the satisfaction.

“Owen. Enough.” The Captain scolded.

Harper rolled his eyes. “Sorry for actually trying to do my work.” He checked over the medical equipment.

Leah didn’t relax her hold on the book. She really hoped her next self would get away from Torchwood. 

Then again, she had met her future self while inside Torchwood

The entire company was destroyed later that day

So maybe her future self got out after all

“Recording.” Sato informed the room.

Leah shook off the worry. Her aunt didn’t try to reach out to her again, instead leaning over the railings to watch the proceedings.

“Have you got your stopwatch?” Harper asked Ianto.

Ianto held it up. “Always.”

“I’ll record from my station. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to look her in the eye. Sorry.” Sato left the medical pit, walking over to her desk.

Chloe seemed to have the same idea. She decided against it, sticking by her niece’s side.

“Anyone else?” The Captain asked.

Leah stared at the corpse. She was unmoved by it. She had only known Costello as the proof of all the evils of Torchwood. Every terrible thing about it had been proven by Costello at this first meeting. 

“Any advice?” Gwen asked the Captain. The Captain gave her a knowing smirk. “Yeah, I know. Empathy. Even though she did try to kill me.”

“You, me, and Leah.” The Captain explained.

Harper hummed. “Shame.”

‘Bastard’  Leah thought.

Gwen put the Risen Mitten on Costello’s head. She hesitated while trying to let the glove work. Leah felt it work like bugs crawling on her skin. Watching the glove filled Leah with a cold dread.

“I’m getting a reading.” Harper reported. “No, it’s gone.” 

So sad. Such a shame. Oh well, we tried!

“Damn.” Chloe complained, leaning back as though relieved.

“Just memories. Nothing living. She’s too far gone.” Gwen sighed, lowering her hand.

“What do we do now?” Sato asked.

 “Nothing we can do. That’s it. We’re out of options.” The Captain stated.

“There’s always the knife.” Harper reminded, cementing his place on Leah’s shit list. “When she killed all those people, she always used the knife, it’s made out of the same metal as the glove.”

“He’s right. The glove did always work better when the knife was involved.” Chloe explained.

“We’ve seen it before. Metallic resonance, like the glove works better if the knife’s part of the process, like closing a circuit.” Sato added in.

“Then let’s use it.” Gwen decided.

“Small detail. The knife was used to kill people. She’s already dead.” The Captain noted.

“Alright, so we kill her again.” Gwen explained.

By the twin suns

These humans are insane

==HBA==

Leah could understand why it was called the Life Knife. It rhymed. It fit. Besides, Ianto was her new favorite so he earned the funny title. The Life Knife was supposed to increase the strength of the 

The Captain cut the skin on Costello’s arm. “Anything?” 

“No. There was just a sort of spark and then it was gone.” Gwen explained. She lowered the glove again. She shook loose her hand before putting it back. “I’m sorry, Jack. You’re gonna have to do it properly.” 

Leah hated this entire plan. She could have a full human year, and still not have enough time to explain why this was dumb.

“What the hell.” The Captain shrugged. He stabbed the knife straight into Costello’s chest.

The woman gasped. Her eyes shot open. She started to twitch on the slab, her breathing picking up as she panicked.

“Suzie? Listen.” The Captain commanded.

“I’ve got to go. I can’t stay. They know. They know.” Costello whined.

Gwen was straining, holding her hand against the glove to keep it steady.

“Just look at where you are. Think back. Try to remember. Suzie. Suzie! Look at me.” The Captain yelled.

“Jack. Oh, my God. There’s a knife in my chest. Did you kill me?” Costello panicked.

“You killed yourself, remember?” The Captain reminded her.

“But. Oh, my God. I shot myself.” Costello remembered. Leah could almost sympathize- one day she might also remember dying like this. Leah 

“We’ve got to ask you about Pilgrim.” The Captain

“No. Wait a minute. Didn’t I kill you?” Costello asked.

“Never mind that. We need names and details.” The Captain questioned.

“Who’s using the glove?” Costello asked.

“I’m sorry.” Gwen apologized.

“Oh, wouldn’t you know it. Gwen bloody Cooper.” Costello snapped. “And who’s that kid with Chloe?”

Chloe stood closer to Leah. Leah said nothing about it. She appreciated the care.

“Thirty seconds.” Ianto warned.

“When you were in Pilgrim you gave the amnesia pill to a man, Max, Do you remember?” The Captain asked. 

“What? You brought me all the way back just for  Max ?” Costello asked, offended. 

“We need to find him. Who is he? What’s his surname?” The Captain pressed.

“He was just some loser.” Costello dismissed.

“We’re losing her.” Harper warned the alive agents.

“Stay here, damn you.” Gwen growled. 

“Don’t force it, Gwen.” The Captain warned her.

“She’s not getting away this time. Stay here. No!” Gwen yelled out. She was flung back from Costello’s head. 

Leah watched in bated breath as Costello’s eyes slid shut. All the while, her chest kept rising with air. 

“I told you to stop.” The Captain scolded. 

Harper leapt over to look at Gwen. Leah was still watching Costello, who had not stopped breathing. “It’s all right. I’ve got her, I’ve got her. Right, here we go. Hold on. Okay, pulse. Yes, she’s all right. We need to get her out of here. Can you come and give me a hand?” 

“It’s the glove. I told you, they get hooked.” The Captain remarked.

“All right, don’t make a fuss. It’s over now.” Harper assured Gwen.

Leah exhaled. “This is insane. Can you believe it?” She asked her.

“I know, I thought it would work.” Chloe sighed.

Leah couldn’t believe none of them had noticed. How had they not noticed? 

“Er, excuse me. I’m still counting.” Ianto was and always would be her favorite. Leah despised everyone at Torchwood except one stopwatch wielding individual.

“There’s not much point. Suzie’s dead.” Harper told him.

“No. According to the equipment, she’s just unconscious.” Ianto explained.

“I can see her breathing.” Leah added, throwing her hand towards the living corpse.

“What the hell’s going on?” The Captain asked.

Leah had no for sure answers, but she could guess.

==HBA==

The living corpse had been moved. They sent her down to one of the interrogation rooms. The Captain and Gwen had gone down alone to question her. Everyone else stayed upstairs. She was given a scarf to cover her head and neck, covering the gunshot wounds. Bringing her back to life hadn’t done anything to heal them.

Leah didn’t like the living corpse. It made her uncomfortable to look at her for too long. While the Captain was  wrong in his existence, Leah had almost gotten used to it. She had expected to walk in here every day to be confronted with a man that could never die.

Costello’s existence was  impossible . The Captain could be explained in odd logic. Costello being revived like this wasn’t right.

“How long’s it been?” Costello asked in an exhausted exhale. The woman was visibly tired, dropping off like she’d been deprived of sleep for three months.

“Three months.” The Captain answered easily.

“When can I die? I just want to go. Can’t you leave me alone?”  Costello complained.

Leah snorted.  ‘Did she really expect any different? That Torchwood would treat her nicely after she died, that they would just let it go? Humanity never lets it go.’

Chloe gave her a look. Had her scoff sounded too insulting? Leah had watched this woman kill her boss, and threaten to kill an innocent woman. She would have tried to kill Leah herself if she saw her.

“You seem to be stuck.”  The Captain told her.

“But, am I gonna stay like this? For how long?” Costello asked.

“Don’t know.” Gwen replied.

“Can I see my father?” Costello requested.

“No.” The Captain replied easily.

“You wiped your records. We had no trace of him.” Gwen explained.

“So he doesn’t even know that I’m dead?” Costello asked, scoffing at her old coworkers.

“Well, you’re not any more.” Gwen pointed out.

“This is sick.”  Costello dismissed.

“You started it.” The Captain countered. Leah had to give him that.  “Right now, we’ve got an investigation underway. Pilgrim. You visited these Pilgrim meetings and gave an amnesia pill to someone called Max. How do we find him?” 

“What for? What did he do? He was just an ordinary bloke.” Costello dismissed.

“We think the Retcon triggered a psychosis. He’s started killing.” The Captain explained.

“How many victims?” Costello wondered.

“Three. Same as you.” Gwen answered.

“We need to know. How much Retcon did you give him?” Harper asked.

“Owen. Hello. Scared to face me?” Costello taunted.

“You frighten the shit out of me, yeah.” Harper replied flatly.

“What about Toshiko and Chloe? Are they still here? ” Costello wondered.

“Yeah, they’re here. All the gang. Happy days.” Harper joked dryly.

“What about that girl? She’s young for Torchwood.” Costello noted.

“How much Retcon did you give him?” The Captain questioned, pushing the topic off of Leah.

Costello eyed the Captain for a moment before going on.  “One a week, every week, for two years.”

Leah’s eyes bugged.

“Christ. No wonder.” Harper huffed.

“What the hell did you do that for?” The Captain asked her.

Costello shrugged tiredly.  “I just, I wanted someone to talk to. About this place. It was driving me mad. And he was just. He listened, that’s all. He just listened. Every week, as soon as I’d finished talking, I’d give him the pill.” 

“You overdosed him.” The Captain accused.

“I didn’t know that. Keep getting it wrong, don’t I?”  Costello countered. “ Is that why you brought me back? Did you think I wasn’t guilty enough?”

“What was his surname?” The Captain questioned.

“I don’t know. All I ever did was talk about me. It’s all my fault, isn’t it? Never bloody stops being my fault. Can’t you just let me die?” Costello pleaded, becoming exhausted again.

“You don’t get off that easy. ” The Captain told her.

“Yeah, you did warn me right at the beginning. He said, this is the one job you can never quit.”  Costello warned Gwen with a tired laugh.

“Then let’s get to work. Come on, Suzie. Just like the old days. There’s gotta be something.” The Captain instructed.

Leah could hardly believe it. With that many drugs in a man’s system, no wonder he became a murderer obsessed with Torchwood. She didn’t think it was possible for all the others to have the same chance of a breakdown, not unless they broke the memory lock. Gwen had done it on a fluke. Leah had never been dosed in the first place.

The Captain had been kind, just that once.

Leah was pretending it had nothing to do with Terra.

‘Every now and again, you let one go.’

Costello went to look through the pictures of people from the Pilgrim group.  “Hold on. There’s someone missing. This girl came every week. Student, blonde. She’s not in these photos.”

“Who was she?” The Captain asked.

“Lucy. Lucy Mackenzie. Said she worked at a club.” Costello answered, slumping in her seat.

“Which one?”  The Captain pressed.

“Tired.”  Costello sighed.

“Come on, Suzie? Which club? For God’s sake, this Max is killing every single member of Pilgrim. Now tell me. Lucy Mackenzie, where did she work? Which club?” The Captain demanded.

“Wolf. The Wolf Bar.” Costello answered before falling back asleep.

Sato was already typing that address into a computer.

==HBA==

“Leah, are you ready?” Sato asked her.

Leah tucked her tablet into her bag. “Yes.” She sat at Sato’s desk. She typed in the commands beside Sato.

The screens lit up for all the agents out in the field. Her aunt had also left with them, leaving Leah alone with a mind-raper and a murderer. A regular party at the Torchwood Hub. At least Ianto was around, making coffee and doing as he does.

“Cover the exits.” The Captain instructed.

“Ooh. Love clubs like this.” Chloe noted.  “Probably circle back when we’re done.”

“Glad you’re having fun. Meanwhile I have a banging headache.” Gwen countered.

“That’s the glove, Gwen. It gets inside your mind.” Costello explained.

Leah narrowed her eyes at Costello.

“Yeah, all right, Suzie, stop creeping me out. Just tell us, any sign of Max or this Lucy Mackenzie?” Gwen asked.

“Nothing yet. Keep moving round.” Costello replied.

“Keep alert, people. To repeat. Max is described as forty, six three, six four, stocky, short dark hair, tattoo down his left arm.”  The Captain reported.

“That narrows it down.” Harper snarked.

Sato was typing away on the screen.

“Who are you?” Costello asked. “None of them have said.”

“Pardon me. I was raised not to talk to the dead.” Leah remarked.  ‘They never did let anyone into the Matrix.’

Costello hummed, curious. “I died and got replaced by a teenager. A teenager is better than me. And your American.”

Leah preened at that. Yeah it was sad she was being praised as Costello insulted herself. But Leah didn’t sympathize with murderers.

‘A red painted smile. Purple eyes clinging as they focused on a knife.

“You can’t kill him.”

The painted lips pouted.’

“When did they hire you?”

“Do you mind? We’re trying to work.” Sato scolded. She didn’t turn her head from the computers there.

“Can’t even look at me, can you? It’s not like you to be so judgemental.” Costello noted.

“Not like you to go on a murder spree.” Sato replied. Leah smirked, hiding it from the living corpse. “All right, so it drives us mad, this job. God knows, I’ve done some stupid stuff. But now, I’ve got to keep on working, every day, in a job that’s got a bit less honor, because of  you .”

Costello had nothing to say about that.

Leah gained some more respect for Sato. She’d done wrong, but she was owning up to it. That was an improvement. 

Sato noticed Leah’s eyes on her. The Time Lady gave her a small smile. 

“Wait, I’ve got a match on that guy.” Harper informed.

Everyone in the Hub went back into serious mode.

“Where is he?”  The Captain asked.

“Northwest Bar.”  Harper answered. His camera focused on a spot of the dance floor by the bar.

“Show me. Owen, get in closer. Which one do you mean?” Costello asked.

“Wait, he’s going over for the/ Hang on. Wait, I’ve got a match on our girl. Lucy Mackenzie, the student.” Harper reported. He loved the camera towards a waitress.

“That’s her. That’s definitely her.” Costello told them.

“It’s too late. He’s going over.”  Harper warned. He rushed at the man, tackling him. Something else had caught Leah’s attention.  “Got the bastard.”

“That isn’t him.” Costello replied.

“You idiot.”  Chloe scolded as she pulled Harper off the stranger.

“Captain behind Gwen!” Leah yelled. 

A man fitting the description had been walking behind Gwen. The Captain leapt into action, pulling Max back before he could stab down on Gwen’s back.

“That’s one for Ianto. Risen mitten, life knife, and that old classic, the stun gun.”  The Captain cheered. Leah looked over the cameras to spot Ianto. The man was smiling. Leah smiled too. “ Come on, let’s get him out of here.” 

“You saved my life.” Gwen stated.

“Just business as usual.” Leah brushed off the praise. Anyone would have done it.

Costello was eyeing Leah from the side. The kind of look that usually comes from something suspect.

==HBA==

Leah was watching the Captain and Harper talk about Max in their cells. For once, Leah didn’t feel bad for the person in the cells. The killer was catatonic, responding only when someone mentioned the name ‘Torchwood’.

She found herself smiling whenever the Captain made the man rant and pound on the door. It kept interrupting Harper’s speech.

The Captain came up before long. Leah was leaning against a wall near his office.

He smirked when he saw the tablet in her hands. “You like the show?”

“It wasn’t bad.” Leah shrugged. “Annoying side character though.”

“Yeah. Max was a bit talkative.”

“I meant Harper.”

The Captain laughed. When he laughed, Leah remembered her visions of his happier days. The younger look on his face, the centuries that hadn’t existed yet on his face. It made sense why Terra would keep a face like that around. If it was as sad as Leah knew, she would want someone around that could show her how to laugh like that.

That didn’t suddenly make him a better person. She couldn’t look past all the mistakes of this Torchwood. She couldn’t help comparing him to the Torchwood she knew. They had been familiar and friendly with each other at that building too. Her tortures had laughed with each other as she screamed in her isolation. 

But the Captain was different from Yvonne Hartman. He was a different sort of terrible. The kind of terrible you knew only came from having a heart, and dreading every second of it.

“So what do you think I should do?” The Captain asked.

“My opinion matters?” Leah reminded him.

The Captain gave her a look, silently confirming.

Leah pressed more of her back against the wall. “About what?”

“Suzie.” The Captain answered. “She’s not dying. Does that make her like me?”

“Your bullet wound healed. Her’s hasn’t.” Leah countered. Then again, nobody had checked under that scarf in awhile. “Your’s heal fast. She’s got more color on her cheeks, so her process is slower. But she’s not the same as you.”

“What am I, then?” The Captain asked.

“Weren’t you waiting for that ‘ special kind of girl, or even a doctor ’?” Leah countered.

“Should’ve known you were still listening then.” The Captain told himself. “Maybe I want to hear it from you.”

Leah shook her head. “You still want to see her. To hear from her.”

“So insistent it’s about a woman.” The Captain teased, his trademark flirting glint in his eyes.

“Was it like that?” Leah asked. She suddenly regretted her question. “You don’t have to answer that.”

The Captain was grinning anyway though. “I don’t blame you for wondering-”

“No. No I wasn’t wondering, shut up-”

“But it wasn’t like that.” The Captain assured her. Leah’s nervous rambling stopped. “Maybe I just want to hear you say it. You’re the closest thing we have to a neutral party.”

Leah could appreciate his show of trust. Yvonne would have thrown her into the cells without question. The Captain was letting her out and about, taking in her insight. Yes he did it because he had no doubt figured out who she would be, but he seemed to still value Leah as herself.

For a Time Lady, this felt like a big deal. For a Time Lady that felt like everything in her life was becoming just castoffs from Terra, Leah was feeling valued for what she was now. Sat...Toshiko had apologized to Leah because she had wanted to apologize, not to appease her future self. Gwen worried about the safety of Leah, not her safety as it related to her future self. Ianto kept her company in the quiet work hours because he wanted to.

Even Harper was nice, cause he was a dick to Leah more out of a xenophobic mindset than a personal one. 

“I think you should blow up that glove.” Leah answered. The Captain tilted his head. He hadn’t said anything negative. He was inviting her to continue. “It was the thing that gave her life in the first place. It’s not a big leap to say it needs to go away in order for Costello to stay dead.”

“So you think what’s dead should stay dead?” The Captain supplied.

Leah paused. She had remembered Lawrence saying the same phrase to her weeks earlier. Her answer then had been the wrong one. She would get it right this time.

“I think that...she had her chance, and she did it wrong. She only brought more death. All she’s done since coming back is complain, worry about how she’s been replaced, saying she’s no good.” Leah explained. “Sometimes bringing back the dead is okay...but I don’t trust a woman that was gifted with a second chance at life is only using it to gripe about how shitty it actually is.”

The Captain was smiling at her.

“I mean yeah, it’s shit, but humans don’t ever talk about it.” Leah added in. It made the Captain laugh.

Leah was scared he would compare her to Terra, as Lawrence had when he had laughed like that.

“Time Lords. Always putting me in my place.” The Captain commented. He reached out, putting a hand on Leah’s shoulder. He squeezed it in a way that felt...thankful. “Thank you.”

Leah smiled back. She wasn’t completely sincere in it...she was getting there.

The two of them were startled out of the silent moment by the enraged marching of Gwen. 

The Captain pulled back, straightening his belt out. “Ooh. I’ve heard marching like that before. I can still feel the slap.”

Leah grinned at the Captain as he walked off towards his office. She spotted Harper working in the conference room, so she joined them.

==HBA==

She was horrified.

Yep.

Horrified.

No two ways about it.

Also she was slapping herself silly for being so  slow.

Harper called down the Captain over the comms. Leah didn’t think that even he could fix how fucked up it all was. By the twin suns and stars, this was  horrific.

The doors opened. The Captain walked. Chloe and Toshiko had come in as well. 

“I was going over Suzie and Gwen’s medical records. I ran them through the philemon filter. Watch the footage.” Harper explained.

He played a video. It was of Gwen, using the glove on the second victim of Max. The energy from the glove could really be seen in this. The energy was pouring from Gwen into the heart of the corpse.

“This is the moment when Gwen brought back Mark Brisco, the husband. See? Now look at his death. See? The energy flow stops just as he’s about to die. But, have a look at Gwen with Suzie.” Harper changed the video.

Leah was holding back the urge to smack her skull into a wall. Worst case: she regenerated. Best case: she regenereated into someone less idiotic.

“Whoa.” The Captain 

“What is that?” Toshiko 

“Energy. Life. But with Suzie, it’s a permanent connection and she is getting stronger. It’s still going right now. She is draining the life out of Gwen.” Harper explained.

“I’m an idiot. I’m an idiot. I am a  fucking idiot. Being around humans has made me slow.” Leah spoke to herself, smacking her face repeatedly.

“There’s always a price.” The Captain stated.

“Gwen’s headache!” Leah scolded herself. “I’m an idiot! How stupid- Costello flat out said it and I didn’t think anything of it!”

The Captain turned to her. Yes, he was thinking about all the experience with Time Lords he’d had in the past. All of it said that once they were having rants like this, they had come on a huge realization. The Doctor’s were funny- kept calling humans inept too.

“Leah, what is it?” The Captain asked. “What did she say?”

“She said it was the glove!” Leah answered. “That it got in her head.” She went up to the computer, snatching the keyboard from Harper. She typed into the board. It pulled up an image of Costello downstairs during the interrogation that had taken place minutes prior. “And the more color in her cheeks, the paler Gwen gets.”

“Oh god.” Toshiko gasped, putting it together herself.

“You don’t think-” Harper began.

“Gwen’s being slowly shot in the head.” Leah informed the horrified Torchwood Three team.

“The wearer of the glove can bring somebody back, but loses their own life in return.” The Captain realized.

“How do we stop it?” Toshiko asked.

“We’ve got to kill her. Suzie’s got to die.” The Captain stated.

“Again?” Toshiko asked.

“But how?” Chloe asked.

“Who’s going to do it?” Harper countered.

“Like you said, I’m the boss.” The Captain turned to the Time Lady. “Leah?”

“Yes?”

“What was that earlier you were saying about the glove?”

“That...it was slowly shooting Gwen in the head?”

“No. Before that.” The Captain asked.

Leah grinned widely.

Finally. She could shoot that thrice damned glove.

==HBA==

Leah had found the perfect gun to ruin the glove with. She would have to get approval from Ianto and the Captain, but she could manage it. She knew how it worked. She would enjoy it.

Did this count as a first kill? Leah didn’t know. Was it a kill when the person was already dead? 

The Captain had apparently wanted Costello to watch, to expose the truth to see if she knew. 

It wasn’t going well.

“Toshiko? Where the hell’s Suzie? And where’s Gwen?”  The Captain asked over the comms.

“Interrogation room.” Toshiko answered.

“No, they’re not. Find them fast.”  The Captain ordered.

Leah turned to where the interrogation room was. Oh  hell no Cooper, what did you do?

“I can’t see them. Hold on. Scanning. Nope. Nothing on internal scans.” Toshiko answered, after checking on her computers.

Leah ran over. 

“What’s going on? Where’ve they gone?” Harper asked, following Leah.

“Just keep looking. Bring up the SUV.” The Captain ordered.

“Yessir.” Chloe ran for the keys.

“Still there. I’ll try exteriors. What about Gwen’s car?” Toshiko asked.

Toshiko pulled up the feed. It was showing Gwen wheeling Costello towards her car.

“What’s she doing?” Harper asked.

“Getting herself fired.” The Captain stated as he walked up to look.

“Unbelievable.” Toshiko scoffed.

“She’s a sympathetic idiot.” Leah stated.

“How stupid is that, thinking she could just drive off.” Harper agreed.

“Hold on, did we just agree on something?” Leah noted. Harper grimaced. “I don’t like it.

“Me either.”

“Got the keys!” Chloe called out.

“Come on, let’s go get them.” The Captain decided.

Before anyone could move a step, the entire building was lit up in red. The doors started locking all around. Leah groaned. Why couldn’t Costello had been stupid like the rest? Why was she clever?

“What the hell? Ianto! Ianto!” The Captain yelled.

“Captain.” Ianto reported for duty.

“What happened?” The Captain asked.

“But, I thought you must have done it. We’ve gone into lockdown.” Ianto replied.

“THAT’S JUST OUR FUCKING LUCK!” Leah yelled.

“Leah! Calm down!” Chloe ordered.

“Then reverse it.” The Captain told Ianto.

“IF YOU SAY-”

“I can’t. It’s a hundred percent. The doors are sealed. We’re locked in.” Ianto explained.

“He said it.” Leah snarked. “He fucking said.  Fuck why is it always the clever ones...”

==HBA==

“I need a gun.” Leah told the Captain. Toshiko was working on checking what they had. Harper and Chloe were doing the same.

“We don’t have time.” The Captain answered.

“Neither does Gwen.” Leah replied. “Every minute we’re trapped down here, she’s losing a fight she has no chance of winning. If we destroy the glove, we give her more time.”

“Which gun?” The Captain asked.

Leah was surprised he had gone with it so easily. She told him the gun she wanted.

“Tell Ianto.” The Captain explained. “He’ll get it.”

“You trust me with a gun in lockdown?” Leah noted.

“Any reason I shouldn’t?” The Captain countered. He walked back over to the computers with the rest of the team.

Her plan greenlit, Leah rushed out for Ianto.

==HBA==

Leah was in love.

She loved this gun.

It was big and it would do the job.

“Are you sure-” 

“Yes this is it.” Leah replied. She held the big gun to her chest. “It’s perfect.

Ianto shook his head. “No I meant are you sure Jack okayed this?”

“He told me to get a gun.” Leah answered. “I think it needs a big gun.”

“You labelled this as  ‘beyond deadly’ .” Ianto reminded her.

“Does that disprove it as a big gun?” Leah asked.

Ianto conceded that point.

The two of them made their way back to the group. The alarms had stopped going off at least. Toshiko and Chloe were working on the computers. The Captain and Harper were nowhere to be seen.

Just when Leah was going to ask, the Captain ran up the stairs from the basement. He slowed when he spotted her. “Leah! Did I catch you with the poem book?”

“Chloe stole it.” Leah automatically answered.

The Captain waved it off. “What comes after this line  I Could Not Stop For Death:  ?”

Leah thought it over. She had liked that poem. In her read through of the book, she 

“She didn’t memorize the book.” Chloe pointed out, dismissing her.

 “Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.” Leah recited.

Nothing happened.

“Why did I do that?” Leah asked.

“Suzie left a trojan horse in our prison.” The Captain answered. “With a love of Emily Dickinson. She planned this from the start.”

“I knew she was clever, but this is just bitchy.” Leah complained.

“Max, the Retcon, everything. It’s all been a hoax to get us to resurrect Suzie.” The Captain explained.

“She gave Max a whole complex of subconscious triggers.” Harper explained.

“She has Max set up to become a time bomb for if she ever died.” Chloe reasoned.

“He doesn’t see her for three months and, wham, the orders kick in. He follows Suzie’s programme and starts killing.” Toshiko realized.

“And the whole chain of events forces us to bring Suzie back.” The Captain listed.

“And then she escapes.” Toshiko added.

“You’ve got to admit, that is not bad. I’m picking her for my team.” Harper stated.

“If she could lockdown the Hub, she must have installed a way of reversing it just in case.” Toshiko reasoned.

“Yeah.” The Captain turned to Leah. “That’s a big gun.”

Leah preened. “It’ll get the job done.”

“Read out the next verse.” The Captain instructed.

“Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.” Leah recited. Again, nothing happened.

“Seriously, you didn’t have that book long enough to memorize it.” Chloe noted.

“Are you species full of freaks?” Harper joked.

Leah glared at him.

The Captain glared too. “Owen.” He warned.

Harper rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright.”

“Wait a minute, just had a thought. If words cause the lockdown, maybe numbers reverse it. Try the ISBN. Every book’s got a different number.” Toshiko reasoned.

“You getting this?” The Captain asked Leah.

She nodded. “It was-”

“You didn’t memorize the number too!” Harper argued.

“I can’t help it! It’s just how we read.” Leah countered.

“Owen. Drop it.” The Captain snapped at him. “I’m not warning you again.” Harper rolled his eyes. The Captain looked at Leah. “The ISBN?”

“019-” Leah began.

Toshiko began to type it out.

“But the keyboards aren’t working.” The Captain reminded her.

“But the membrane underneath might just recognise the code.” Toshiko explained.

“I like it.” Leah stated. “8600585.” 

Tosiko typed it out.

The red lights stopped. The power restored in an electronic whir. Everyone cheered.

“Finally!” Leah raised the gun. “Now where’s the fucking glove?”

==HBA==

Gwen was found on the side of the road. She had been driving Costello to a hospital, where her father was reported to have been. He was recovering from cancer, according to Costello.

But Gwen was alive when they picked her up. Costello was long dead.

She had given out mad sputterings as she started fading. The Captain had called on his way to pick up Gwen. Leah was told to wait until they had proof of life.

Apparently Costello taunted the Captain with a warning.

“Something is moving in the dark, Jack. And it’s coming. It wants to see you.” These had been her dying words.

She had shot the glove.

And she’d never felt more excited.

She could understand why her future self always seemed to have one by her side.

@

==HBA==

Leah was handing the gun back to Ianto.

He smiled at her. He walked off with it, to put it back where it belonged. It was his last task to do before everyone was sent home for the night.

The Captain hummed. “You didn’t have to shoot the body.”

“It’s called a double tap. You do that with zombies.” Leah reminded him.

“Yeah but now she’s nothing but a pile of goo.” The Captain noted.

“I didn’t know it would do that to organic tissue, and you can’t prove it.” Leah countered.

The Captain gave her a knowing look. Leah put on her best innocent smile. The Captain only laughed, before sighing as he stood up on his feet. “Ianto said something...got me thinking.”

Leah paused. “Yeah?”

“You think we’ll ever see them again?” The Captain asked. “Another...Risen Mitten?”

Leah grinned at the stupid name. “I think so.”

The Captain nodded. He apparently was thinking so too. Had he wanted Leah to disagree, maybe tell him he was wrong? Leah didn’t see why. “Do you ever hate being right?”

“Sometimes.” Leah admitted. “Did she?”

“Always.” The Captain replied, with a sad frown that probably came with bitter memories that Leah hadn’t lived through yet.

 

She was dreading that a little less now.


	10. Out Of Time Fix-it: By Gamora Anderson

Three people walked out from a small old fashioned plane. Well not so old fashioned, it had indeed been built in the fifties but circumstances made it brand new to this time.

The pilot of this plane, a lovely tall dark haired woman named Diane who had the glare that could fell a man at twenty feet, walked over to the woman standing on the runway. Diane hadn’t seen this woman before, but her stance gave of something like being in charge so she was clearly the person to talk to.

“Hello there.” Diane greeted. The woman gave a curt nod. “Apologies for the unplanned touchdown. Just hit some rotten turbulence. That’s a daring hairstyle.”

The woman smiled. Her red painted lips stretched into a stilted smile. She spoke with an American accent, one of the odd ones that Diane couldn’t place. “I have nieces, and one likes to paint.” The woman pointed to her tomato red hair. It only made her purple eyes stand out all the more. “Apparently my hair was an option. Who knew?”

Diane could only give a confused smile back. “Diane Holmes, pilot.” She introduced herself, holding out her hand.

“Gamora Anderson.” The woman supplied. “Delivery woman.”

“Is this some sort of secret base?” Diane asked.

“Not yet.” Gamora replied. “This everyone? Diane Holmes, John Ellis, and Emma Louise Cowell?”

“Yes.” Diane replied.

“Everything all right?” John asked, walking towards the two women.

“How long before we head off again? My uncle’s expecting me.” A young blonde girl, everything you expected of a twenty something named Emma- explained.

“That depends.” Gamora began. “When did you leave?”

“About half an hour ago.” Diane supplied.

“Then you’ll be there in half an hour.” Gamora explained. She had a more knowing look on her face now, like she had the world’s best secret and she was never letting you know it. “I know a shortcut.”

She pulled out a small remote. The dark red minivan behind her clicked it’s lights. Diane thought it was an extremely fancy car for something so small to fix. 

“No it’s alright, my plane-” Diane began.

“Don’t you worry about it. I’m having some people take care of it. The Haven has a garage for a reason after all.” Gamora assured her. “Besides do you really wanna go back up there with the turbulence you just had?”

Diane had no argument for that.

“Gather up all your stuff. I’m not taking a second trip out here.” Gamora advised the passengers.

Emma and John obeyed the command. Diane had nothing but what she had been wearing. It wasn’t supposed to be a long trip for her like it was for them.  Ten minutes later they were all ready to go.

From far down the runway, a van was pulling up. It was driving quite fast.

“Whoops. They fixed the stoplights.” Gamora noted, not sounding at all disappointed. “Come on, you lot. You’re going to want to come with me. That lot will get you killed.”

Her passengers climbed into the car with little protest. Diane hesitated a moment, looking towards the black van speeding towards the plane. She wondered if that was-

Gamora cleared her throat, muttering something under her breath.

-the car coming to pick up her plane. Yes, that must be it. Diane climbed into the passenger seat of the car. 

Gamora slammed the car door shut. She pushed down a button on her key as the van pulled up. The doors all activated their sound proofing. 

Three people climbed out from the car. Gamora was giddy with excitement. She had been waiting a long time to see them again, now she was getting the chance. They had such baby faces too. Even Jack seemed so young here and now, while he still had a head of hair.

“Hey!” Jack shouted at her.

Gamora waved at him. “Torchwood! Hello!” She leaned forward, lowering her voice to a conspiratal whisper. “Be honest. How many of those red lights did you run?”

Jack pointed a warning finger at her. Gamora was suddenly happy that her hair almost matched the car, cause that meant it would take Jack a good minute to remember who she was. “They have to come with us.” Jack insisted.

“I think you’ll find that no they don’t.” Gamora replied. Behind Jack, Gwen and Owen were fuming. They went to investigate the car. It only made Gamora more giddy. She did so love pissing of cops. Torchwood Agents were just cops of a different color. Her minivan was more locked up than Fort Knox. “They come with me.”

“They’re in our jurisdiction.” Jack reported. He never mentioned what their jurisdiction was. He had no way of knowing Gamora knew that jurisdiction, and she didn’t care.

Torchwood was higher than the government.

But Gamora’s boss was higher than  _ the rules of reality itself. _

Or at least that’s what her paychecks were saying.

“My boss says differently. Says these fucks go with me.” Gamora nodded to her minivan.

“She locked the van!” Owen yelled from the other side of the van. “I can’t get it open!”

Gamora snorted. “Those are called  _ locks _ , sweetheart. Standard on all cars.” She gave an overly flirty smile to Jack. “They’re ours now.”

Jack shook his head, smiling wide his own trademark flirty grin. “Why don’t you just let this one go?”

“You know I can’t.” Gamora snorted another laugh. “ _ TJ _ says they go with  _ me _ .”

Jack froze.

Gwen watched in confusion as Jack took a step back from the woman. “Jack?”

“What do you have to say to that?” Gamora asked. She took a step closer to Jack, running her finger along his coat. “Last time I was this close, there were a lot more chains involved.”

Jack stared at the woman in shock for a long moment. Recognition was finally showing in his baby blue eyes. Gamora loved that loook. That look when someone realized just how dangerous the situation was, now that she was involved. She never got tired of it. So many people got so panicked when Gamora was given free reign. Jack was one of the few in this reality that understood how free that reign was.

“Jack?” Gwen prompted.

“Jack!” Owen called. “The doors still won’t open. I don’t even see them moving!”

“Knock out drugs in the vents.” Gamora supplied. “They didn’t need to be awake for the next part.”

Gwen tapped Jack. “Jack?”

Jack took a step back. “Back in the van.”

“What?”

“You have to be joking.” Owen deadpanned.

Jack shook his head. “This time, it’s not ours.” He informed his team.

Gwen sighed. “Are you serious?”

Jack nodded. “Back in the van.” He and Gwen started walking back toward the van.

There was a loud thump. Owen yelled in pain.

“Owen!” Gwen scolded.

“The windows are strong!” Owen excused.

“I said we were clearing out!” Jack yelled at him.

“Well. That’s a shame.” Gamora held up her car key. “I was gonna give you my number.” She pressed a button on the key. 

The car roared to life. Gamora hopped up, grabbing the driver side door. As the car drove off, she pulled a gas mask out from her coat pocket. Another perk of working with Gamora’s boss, you get Time Lord tech in spades.

She held up the mask for Jack. “REMEMBER THESE!? HAHA- HAVE FUN CATCHING UP TO MUMMY!”

She slid it on. As the car was still driving, remember, she unlocked her door and slipped inside.

Gamora grinned to herself. She wondered how long it would take Jack to notice she’d slipped her number into the lapel of his coat. Probably awhile. Long enough for her to drop off the latest catches at the Haven, get them all settled in in their proper time of 1958.

Or whatever.

Gamora didn’t have to pay attention to the actual numbers. That was GARTH’s job.

 

==HBA==

 

Her phone rang that night.

Gamora was in a bar, celebrating her time in 2007- 8?-7 before it all got fucked by Saxon. Besides, she needed to get drunk to forget that whole year.

She answered the phone. She grinned at the contact ID.

“Hello, Buttface.” Gamora greeted. “Took you a long time finding my number. Do you never check your coat anymore?”

_ “You were just too good at hiding it.” _ Jack replied. Gamora could hear chatter in the background. He had her on speaker phone? Dirty pool, Mr Harkness, dirty pool.  _ “Where did you take them?” _

“Did you teach your people about the rules yet? Those are still a big deal in this line of work.” Gamora explained. “One of those newer ones, on my own personal list which is a thing now, is  _ ‘never put each other on speakerphone. It ruins the mood.’” _

Quiet.

“It’s no skin off my back to dirty talk to your coworkers.” Gamora traced her finger on her glass. “It’s fun to work out my exhibition kink. Did you want me telling all your little friends the  _ nitty gritty  _ of our past?”

There was some more chatter. Gamora smirked, letting herself have a sip of her drink. She could tell they wer eall insistent that Jack be the one to talk to her. They were always so eager to find anything new about their boss. They never thought about consequences in ths first season to those suggestions.

Gamora was happy to exploit that weakness.

Especially since they made it so fun.

“Have you traced my phonecall yet, or do I need to find other ways-” Gamora eyed a twenty-something that had walked to the bar. She grinned at the tight jeans, slowly looking up to see the man winking at her. She winked back. “-to entertain myself?”

_ “I’m coming.” _

“Oh I love it when a man says that.” Gamora teased. “You’ll be happy to know I came first.”

Jack hung up.

Gamora chuckled to herself.

As she sat in the bar for another twenty minutes, she’d had two more glasses. Any other person would’ve been drunk by now. Gamora was made of tougher stuff than that.

She watched Jack Harkness walk into the bar. The man wasted no time. He walked right up to her seat at the bar.

“Did you want a booth, Oh Captain My Captain?” Gamora asked. “Or is the bar enough for you?”

Jack settled himself into the stool beside her’s. “I think it’s great.” He ordered himself a drink. 

Gamora settled herself in for the most anticipated night of her life. “They asked questions?” 

Jack shifted slightly in his stool. “Yeah they did.”

“You answer them?” Gamora countered. She sipped at her glass again.

“No.” Jack replied, terse. Gamora raised an eyebrow, still savoring her drink. “I didn’t.”

“I believe you.” Gamora assured him. Jack had always been good at keeping things quiet. He wouldn’t have told anyone about her sister’s powers, much less anything interesting. Terra always trusted the ones that could keep quiet.

And if they couldn’t, she’d also trusted Gamora.

Gamora lowered her glass. 

“I’m liking the new hair.” Jack complimented.

Gamora snorted. “Yeah.” She held back the mention of her nieces. Telling Diane had been okay, the woman would never meet Jack or anyone from Torchwood. Telling Jack who could be exposed to Torchwood, have them force the answers out of him? Gamora liked her sister not torturing her.

She liked her nieces too. Fuck no was she telling anyone about them this early in the show’s timeline.

Not even Jack.

“You just show up with new hair every now and again?” Jack wondered. “You were blonde last time.”

“To annoy TJ.” Gamora answered. It was easier to call her  _ ‘TJ’ _ in case Jack was wearing a wire. If Torchwood was listening, she didn’t want to risk the Haven anymore than necessary. “She hates blondes- it’s a mommy issue thing.”

Jack only hummed in reply. His drink arrived, so he had a sip of it. “Why did you take the passengers?”

“Cause I could fix your mess.” Gamora replied easily, as if she would’ve been doing anything else. “The boss likes things done clean.”

“ _ The boss  _ could have told me that.” Jack suggested.

“TJ has a thing for that.” Gamora replied, waving it off. “Quit being impatient.”

Jack strained himself to keep from snapping. Gamora loved getting people riled up like this. 

“Gotta day, my team was impressed by the stunt with the car.” Jack noted, pushing himself to ask the questions necessary for the investigation. “How did you get it to go without a driver?”

“It didn’t need one. You know what TJ is like. Self-driving cars were just another challenge.” Gamora replied. “Flying cars are next. TJ just wants to tell Howard Stark to go fuck himself...and you don’t get that reference.”

“Yeah I do.” Jack replied. “I keep up on things.”

“It won’t come out for four years.” Gamora reminded him, smug.

“It was a comic book. I read.” Jack countered. “Unlike  _ some _ .”

“The boss told you to say that.” Gamora argued. “No way you came up with that.”

“What, jealous I’m the favorite?”

“You  _ wish _ .” Gamora leaned forward, closer to Jack than before. “Don’t you, Buttface?”

“Where did the car take them?” Jack asked, a complete non-sequitur that almost killed the mood.

Almost. Gamora Anderson was involved. The mood was never fully dead. “Someplace good...safe... _ fun _ .” Gamora teased.

“Are they still alive?” Jack pressed.

Gamora smiled her best sultry look. “You think TJ let me kill people?” She asked. She made sure to look him up and down. Jack was such a tall glass of water. “Ones I worked so hard to save?”

“I think sometimes you play by your own rules so you make sure to hide it.” Jack replied.

“But kill innocent people, whose only crime was taking a flight through time?” Gamora asked. “It may not seem like it, but I  _ do  _ have a moral code.”

“I’m not seeing it.” Jack replied.

“Did you want to?” Gamora offered.

“Yes.” Jack replied.

“Wanna see anything else?” Gamora asked.

“TJ  _ was _ worried we would sleep together.” Jack recalled, not at all scared off by it.

“Doesn’t that just make it more fun?” Gamora teased. She leaned forward to put her hand on his thigh.

“You’re not taking me to your place.” Jack reasoned.

“You wouldn’t survive the night.” Gamora grinned, delighted that he was a smart one. The dumb ones were fun for a quickie but the smart ones took so  _ long. _

“Mine won’t have you unless you’re in cuffs.” Jack reasoned.

“So...motel room?” Gamora held up a room key. 

Jack grinned.

 

==HBA==

 

Gamora pulled her pants back on. She was still giddy from the night’s events. This post-sex haze mingled with her post-murder adrenaline to make a cocktail of chemicals in her brain.

She felt high as a  _ kite _ . She’d murdered Jack Harkness after a night of wild sex. She had waited for this for  _ sixty years _ . It was her dream- her goal. It’d made her overjoyed when her sister had confirmed they’d have sex. Gamora just had to focus on the  _ ‘when’ _ of it all.

He had thought to get answers from her, in the pillow talk. Gamora didn’t  _ have  _ pillow talk. That was a general rule of thumb. 

She buttoned up the jeans, pulling them again over her hips. 

There was a groan from the bed.

Gamora roller her eyes. Reaching into her jean pocket, she threw the object inside at his back. He fell back on the bed. 

“I said  _ stay down _ .” Gamora scolded. She couldn’t make it sound stern. Instead she was beaming. A chance to have  _ ‘Darcy Style _ ’ sex with Captain Jack Harkness.

Sometimes she had all the fun. 

She searched the ground for her top and jacket. It was a cute jacket, she’d be pissed if she left without it. 

Gamora huffed in annoyance. She walked over, plucking her knife from his chest. She pointed it out toward the room. “ _ Accio _ jacket and shirt.”

Two objects flew into her hand. She threw on the shirt and jacket. 

There was another groan from the bed.

Gamora knew she could ignore that.  _ “Accio _ my stuff.” She cast as a safety measure. 

Nothing flew to her hand. She shrugged, tucking the knife back into her pants. She’d clean it later. 

“Bye Jack.” Gamora waved.

She turned towards the door.

Before she could even make a step, she heard the click of a gun.

_ ‘Where were you hiding that?’ _

_ ‘You really don’t want to know.’ _

Gamora really had to remember that she had to peg the smart  _ kinky _ ones. “Gun in the ass. It was my favorite scene, and I forgot you kept a gun in your ass.”

“Old dog.” Jack noted. “Same old tricks.”

Gamora had to concede him that win. She made the mess, she had to clean the mess.

 

==HBA==

 

She was in a Torchwood jail cell.

The infamous Janet was in the cell beside.

“They get good cable down here?” Gamora asked.

The Weevil didn’t answer her. Not that she expected any answer, she just would’ve appreciated it.

Her phone was ringing. 

Yeah, the agents had searched her. All they’d found was a dummy knife. She kept everything hidden away in secret pockets and the like. She wasn’t an amateur.

She reached into a secret pocket, humming along to the tune of  _ I’m Crazy Weirdo and I’m Calling You _

She let it ring for a moment. The song was just too funny, too on point.

_ I’m crazy weirdo and I’m calling you _

_ I’ve really got nothing better to do _

_ I dial up your number and I let the phone ring _

_ Then two minutes later I’ll be doin’ it again _

She glanced at the ID. Her phone was given a Time Lord-Reality Walker upgrade. It told her exactly what Terra she was talking with.

_ ‘Terra 2- 179.’ _

“Holy shit. This one is a  _ baby _ .” She answered the phone. “Zup bitch...Nothing too bad. Promise.” Gamora promised. “When are you?...Could you...could you be more specific? That’s every day for us...I feel the love. It’s just that literally happens all the time in this reality. The aliens every Christmas, Downing street blowing up, the day where the universe literally stopped happening and there had to be a Big Bang Two. Don’t even get me started on River’s wedding! The world’s always ending, at least according to the middle aged. Like you, my bitch...What, so you can punch me in the face for calling you middle aged?...Torchwood Three jail cells. Jack doesn’t like me much...Yeah, hehe. That might be why he doesn’t like me...Too late.” She joked, her usual way of saying goodbye. She clapped the phone shut.

She eyed the Torchwood agent that had walked into the basement. She had been so patient as Gamora had her phone call. Gamora didn’t 

Gwen Cooper was glaring at her.

“What, was I being too loud?” 

Gwen narrowed her glare. “What did you do with them?”

“Did you find the bodies hanging from telephone wires yet?” Gamora grinned, taunting the agent. “I was especially proud of the one that had acid in their veins. If they didn’t want their face melting off, they should’ve taken the other needle. They’re better than Slow-Ass-Mother-Fucking-Jeff.”

Gwen hated this person. She had only known her a day, and she hated this woman. How could Jack ever sleep with someone like this? “You think this is funny? You’re sick.”

“Nope. They had me tested.” Gamora winked. “Tested me for other things too...wanna see?”

“How do you know Jack?”

“How does  _ anyone? _ ” Gamora teased. “Your boy gets around...really gets down and dirty.”

Gwen turned on her heel, disgusted. She marched out from the basement.

“Tell him I said hi!” Gamora requested. “And that I still really liked the tongue thing!”

There had been no tongue thing. But the idea of it would stay in Gwen’s mind. It would tick away, reminding Gwen that Jack has slept with a woman  _ and it wasn’t her _ . 

Gamora loved the conflict.

 

==HBA==

 

Breaking out of the Torchwood jail cells was as easy as blinking. She waited until it was so late that there was no reasonable reason for anyone to still be there. 

They’d questioned her on and off throughout the day. A cycle of Gwen then Owen then Jack partnered with Ianto. Cause apparently Jack was liable to seduce Gamora again. 

Foolish 21st century humans. 

Gamora enjoyed threesomes too. Especially with smart kinky ones and the posh boys. They knew how to have  _ fun  _ together. Gamora loved a party.

She did want to see the Doctor’s hand first. It just looked so cool! How many times was she gonna have a chance to see a severed hand without it being part of a clone?

She tapped the jar. The hand bobbled inside. Gamora chuckled.

“You aren’t supposed to touch that.”

Gamora turned around, reaching for a knife to throw at whoever was dumb enough to sneak up on her. She paused before actually throwing the knife. The person sneaking up was a familiar face. Well not her face, it was her eyes that got Gamora’s attention. A familiar golden shade of amber, narrowed on her like she was a new thing to study.

Terra One.

The really, really young one.

Gamora thought about the timeline of this Time Lady. If she remembered right...did some math here...she wasn’t as smart as her sister but she was no idiot. This Terra still went by a more human name. She wasn’t even  _ drinking age _ yet. Gamora could hardly remember a time when her sister wasn’t a borderline alcoholic.

Ha.

_ Borderline _ .

“Holy shit. I thought she was a baby but  _ you  _ are a fuck damned  _ embryo.”  _ Gamora taunted, standing up straight. She smiled at the Time Lady, fully aware that all it would take was one scream for Leah to expose her.

But she had made herself a mystery.

Gamora knew that no version of Terra could resist the mystery that was Gamora Anderson.

“Get out of my space, go back to your cell.” Leah warned.

If it was any other fifteen year old, Gamora would have snorted. This wasn’t any fifteen year old. This was one that was basically her sister’s meatsuit. If it had the potential to be a meatsuit, it had the potential to give Gamora new holes in her body.

She liked this shirt. She didn’t want it ruined.

“I’m not going back in there. And you know I’m not.” Gamora told her.

“You won’t kill me.” Leah stated, matter-of-factly.

“More than one way to skin a cat.” Gamora advised.

Ah, she had figured out shit too. Maybe she’d seen how Jack looked at Gamora, had heard any of the bits of conversation from the day, maybe Jack himself had said something about Gamora and his past.

Worst choice: she’d had a vision or some shit. Gamora hated that. It was an easy cop-out, cheating in a way that wasn’t fun or clever. You just got hit in the face with cheat codes to life. Fuck that.

Going off Leah’s face, she’d seen some visions about Gamora. Had she seen anything gorey? Gamora hoped so. Gamora hoped it was what she did to Jack last night. Actually no. She didn’t want anything connected to her sister watching her have sex. That was not a fun thing to think of.

Maybe she just watched Gamora cut out a man’s guts, or something. Yeah that was better.

“You could have left any time you wanted.” Leah stated. She had figured that out a while ago then.

“Noticed that, huh?” Gamora noted.

“Why didn’t you?” Leah asked instead. 

“Didn’t want to run by Flashlightwood, cause I’m Murican, I don’t call it a  _ ‘torch’ _ .” Gamora replied while easily slipping into the most American accent she could make. Leah mentally face-palmed. Gamora mentally self-fived. Annoying the Terras was Gamora’s favorite hobby. “You’re not calling out.”

Leah made a face twitch. That was Terra’s classic face twitch. That was the _ ‘my sister is gonna murder people and I actually like them so could you not?’ _ face. Leah hadn’t called the Torchwood agents because she knew what Gamora would do to them.

Which meant Leah had seen all that she needed about Gamora.

Those people may have Plot Armor, but Gamora could still cut them down.

_ A psychic can tell you they saw you live to a hundred. _

_ Never at any point do they say what state you’ll be in. _

Gamora loved that theory. She had been given a lot of leeway because of that theory. If Owen could be brought back from death, then all of them could. 

But Leah had that one armor more powerful.

Gamora had already killed her sister.

She had no desire to do it again.

“Who was the boss?” Leah asked.

Gamora hummed. “You’re smarter than that.” She dismissed.

Leah glanced at the cut off hand. “The passengers. They’re still alive?”

“The boss made sure of it.” Gamora promised. “Last I heard, anyway.”

Leah took a step back. She seemed to have no inner moral conflict on her face. She’d already made her choice. She’d probably made it when they first brought Gamora in. All Terras may be annoyed by Gamora, they still stuck around her. Cause Terra knew that she needed Gamora around.

“Get out.”

Gamora couldn’t stop herself from saluting. Without crossing the path of any Torchwood agents, she got away.

 

==HBA==

 

Gamora walked into the Haven.

She was happy that the Haven moved around. If she had to go all the way to London to connect, she was gonna lose her shit.

She let GARTH scan her hand. She ignored the biting feeling in her hand. She pushed the door open.

Terra Three was sitting on the couch, reading a golden covered book. Gamora didn’t give much a shit beyond that.

“Hey.” Gamora called. Terra didn’t look up from her book. “You the Terra that brought me here?”

Terra turned a page in her book. “Age?”

“90.” Gamora answered.

“Nope. Mine’s 51.” Terra replied. She turned another page. “Ugh.”

“What the fuck are you reading?” Gamora asked. She walked over to the couch, leaning over the side to get a peek at the book.

“I’m not reading it anymore. I’m stopping at the end of act one...here.” She clapped the book shut. Gamora could look into her face. Yep. “I don’t like this.”

“What’re you reading now?” Gamora asked. She would’ve read the cover. It was just more fun to annoy Terra.

“The Cursed Child.” Terra answered in a groan.

Gamora snorted. She’d heard about the book, the play, the whole thing. She remembered the backlash in her Terra reading it. It had been fucking awesome. Especially since she knew Terra would go to  _ Harry Potter  _ and just...basically do better.

“What’s bad about it?” She asked Terra Johnson, the person who obsessively went to places to fix the things she thought wrong. Asking Terra to tell you what was wrong with a story was like asking your drunk uncle about his opinions on Thanksgiving. You were only asking for an emotionally fueled rant.

“ _ The Cursed Child _ is the worst thing to happen to  _ Harry Potter  _ since  _ My Immortal  _ finished.” Terra stated plainly.

“That is a low bar.” Gamora replied. She’d read only part of that cursed fanfic. Mostly to rub in her sister’s face. She would never admit it was her greatest shame.

“You’re right, I should just blame JK and move on.” Terra threw the book on the ground. “ _ La mort de l'auteur _ .” She decreed.

Gamora waited.

Terra was still reclining on the couch.

Gamora tilted her head.

Terra waited...then grabbed the book. “I can’t.”

“You’re a completionist. Your body won’t let you not finish the book.” Gamora mocked, laughing. 

Terra groaned. She readjusted her spot on the couch, opening the book where she left it. “I hate you, I hate you, go die.”

Gamora clapped her sister’s back. “You wish.” She went back towards the hallway. Terra was groaning in time with Gamora’s steps.

She had to find her Terra. She had to let her know that Gamora had sex with Jack Harkness. She needed to see the look on Terra’s face. She missed it during the phonecall, she wasn’t missing it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Out of Time has such an interesting episode, than can be completely fixed by Terra Johnson just existing and having access to time travel. Also I get to write a Gamora POV chapter.


	11. Who Is the Monster, Who Is the Man?

“How’s Janet doing?” Her aunt asked.

Leah glanced away from her tablet. She barely gave Chloe a passing glance before looking back. “She’s hungry. According to the schedule, anyway, and she’s getting antsy.”

“Yes, I remember. You recommended giving her something to play with.” Chloe noted.

“Animals in captivity on this planet show that over time they lose the ability to hunt, and become more lazy overtime.” Leah reported.

Her aunt gave her a look. “That only matters when they’re let go.”

Leah pointedly looked away from her aunt. That just wasn’t fair. She knew that Torchwood would never let Janet go willingly. That didn’t mean they could keep treating her like this, keep treating her like a dirty little secret in the basement that barely deserved acknowledgement until they deemed her important.

Just another reason to hate Torchwood.

Oh. Wait...unless that reference was for something else.

Did...did her aunt suspect something?

“Fine. Then I guess I should take advantage of that status.” Leah picked up her bag, throwing it over her shoulder.

Chloe sighed. “Leah no-”

“Don’t call me. I’ll be busy.” She instructed before storming off.

 

==HBA==

 

She was in a cafe, sipping on cocoa to avoid going back. The team had been given the night off to get over the fact that Gamora had escaped. Jack was going over the security systems to see how she escaped.

They had no reason to believe she had been involved in Gamora’s escape. All the better for Leah. Any footage had been mysteriously blanked out around Gamora, even on Leah’s bugs. Even though she’d let her go without telling anyone, Leah had no idea how she’d escape in the first place.

Leah had no idea how she did it. She had so many questions about it.

But she had Gamora’s face before. 

Flashes of her future.

_ ‘Darcy Anderon, I’m whore.’ _

_ ‘I met him already. In the Year.’ _

_ ‘No way. I called you, future you, she said she slept with him!’ _

_ ‘Really?’ _

_ ‘Yeah! I mean, she was in Torchwood jail cells, and she’s definitely killed him a couple times, but she was happy!’ _

_ ‘I felt like I was missing out. Hello. Captain Jack Harkness. I’ve heard a lot of things about you.’ _

Leah had seen all she wanted to know about Gamora Anderson. 

Apparently her Visionary nature had decided differently.

‘ _ Right. Because it needs, what, your eye print?’ Gamora asked. ‘Fingerprints? DNA lock? I can get past those.’ _

_ Before she got her answer, she stuck her knife into his neck. A blue  alien choked. Dark blue blood started pouring from his neck. _

_ ‘See? Got DNA right here.’ The assassin pulled the dagger out. More blood poured out. Kyllan collapsed to the ground, his dark blue blood starting to pool around him. _

Leah didn’t like visions of Gamora Anderson. Each one she saw was bloodier than the last. If she had warned anyone about her escape, she knew they would all be killed. Gamora had killed Captain Jack the night before. Nothing was protecting the agents. Gamora was given leeway against them.

Leah wasn’t risking them over that.

Even if...even if she saw what Gamora was like...she was so  _ interesting _ .

What kind of person kills a man she’d slept with? A man who was so close to her, who knew Terra and should’ve been on a don’t kill list? The one man who could come back after being killed. Gamora had known, not only that Captain Jack couldn’t die, but that he wouldn’t tell the team about it.

She was terrifying.

And Leah couldn’t stop thinking about it. Her future self always went for the violent ones, didn’t she? The mysterious violent ones with so many secrets to uncover.

Leah pondered all of this over a cup of cocoa.

Someone tapped her shoulder. Leah jumped in her seat, pulling off her headphones. A waitress was standing over her shoulder. The waitress gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, don’t mean to stop you but...we’re closing soon?”

Leah checked her watch. It was close to midnight. She had thought she walked into a 24 hour cafe. Guess she was wrong. “Sorry! My bad.”

“No, I get it. Studying and all that.” The waitress replied. “Usually we let you be, but the boss has cracked down on closing on time. We’ve got five minutes before-”

“Right, right. Course. It’s not studying, really, I’m just- avoiding home. Too much going on and everyone is just so tense and I can’t-” Leah waved her off. “Sorry. That was an overshare. Thank you.”

“Oh, dear. That’s rough. I’m so sorry.” The waitress apologized.

“Don’t be, please.” Leah asked. “I’m fine, I promise. Just needed some space to cool my head. A walk right now will do wonders.”

The waitress gave one last apologetic smile before going.

Leah started putting her belongings together. She could keep away from her aunt and Torchwood for a while yet. Maybe there was a 24 hour place nearby. Leah was actually feeling peckish...okay she was feeling really hungry. Why hadn’t she eaten anything here?

Someone tapped on her shoulder.

“I know, I know. I’m just-” Leah turned around to see a man standing behind her. He had the angriest expression on his face. It was going all red while glaring at Leah, as though she had made a huge mess that she expected them to clean. “-sorry, have I done something?”

“You know what you did.” The man snapped at her.

Leah could only blink in reply. Her mind scrambled about anything she could’ve done in the past two hours to gain this hate. Had her music been too loud? No, she’d been wearing headphones. Had she spilled anything? No, she’d finished her drink quite fast actually.

“You’re trying to flirt with my girlfriend.”

...okay Leah would never understand humans. “What?”

“Don’t play dumb.” The man snapped. “I saw you chatting her up. What, had you been waiting here all night to get her to focus on you?”

Leah had no idea where he was making these conclusions. “Sir, I’m sorry. I’ll just leave-”

“No. All you American dykes are the same. You think you can just flirt with her and get away with it?” The man yelled.

This finally caught the attention of the waitress. “Hold it, Darren what the bloody hell are you-!”

The man pulled his fist back.

Leah had only a second to gawk before stepping into gear. She reached her hand out, grabbing at a nerve on the man’s neck. It was a quick move that was only possible because she’d caught him off guard, people kept assuming she was weak in a fight. Leah used it to her advantage.

The man was frozen under the grip.

“I’m sorry.” Leah replied in a panicky voice. She was usually calm under pressure. The man had caught her off guard too. “Really. I don’t do fights. They aren’t my thing. Whenever I get in a fight like this, I’m worried you’ll end up in a hospital. That doesn’t do well in a fight does it?”

The man narrowed his eyes at her. Leah couldn’t hold him like this for long. 

“I’m not flirting with her.” Leah told him. “I think you need to accept the fact you are trying to hold too much control over the relationship. If it feels like she’s pulling away enough for you to think she’s flirting with strangers, then you need to do some self-evaluation about why she’s pulling away. Talk to her. Work out your problems with words rather than punches.”

She let go of his neck. The man collapsed to the floor in a heap.

The waitress ran over, checking over Leah first. “Are you alright? God I’m so sorry-”

“It’s alright. I think he learned his lesson.” Leah replied. She gathered the last of her belongings. 

The waitress was helping the man onto his feet. She dropped him into one of the chairs, looking over his shaking form. His body was getting used to the idea of free movement again. He glared at Leah, completely missing the attention of his girlfriend.

They would be broken up in a week at this rate.

Leah checked her watch. It had been more than five minutes. She walked out the door, not looking back.

_ Maybe there was a good reason Terra kept picking the violent ones. _

 

==HBA==

 

Captain Jack had been calling her.

Leah answered. The diner she was in now was quiet. Most of the people here were filling their stomachs, trying to help their ‘munchies’ or to stall a hangover. A phone call about aliens wouldn’t go amiss in all of it.

_ “Check your camera over Janet.” _ Captain Jack instructed.

Leah pulled out her tablet. She checked Janet’s feed. The Weevil was pressed up against the glass, seeming to be- “Is she crying?”

_ “You noticed it too?” _ Captain Jack asked.

Leah pulled her knees up, adjusting herself in the booth so she could lie sideways. She put the tablet on her knees. “Why is she crying? What did your people do?”

_ “It’s not Torchwood people that are doing it.” _ Captain Jack replied. Leah made a disgusted noise.  _ “Chloe told me you noticed this before.” _

“Yeah, Janet’s been depressed lately. As depressed as her kind can be, anyway.” Leah replied. “Am I on speaker?”

“ _ With Ianto.” _ Captain Jack answered

“Good enough.” Leah continued with her explanation. “Her species have a low level telepathy. It hadn’t had much chance to evolve, since her species had been psy-null for so long so it’s mostly good for emotional telepathy. Empaths.”

_ “You think it’s feeling the pain of another Weevil?” _ Ianto asked.

“You know I hate calling them that.” Leah scolded. “But yes.”

_ “Damn. I was hoping I was wrong.” _ Captain Jack sighed.

_ “Why?”  _ Ianto asked.

_ “Because that would mean somebody's not only kidnapping Weevils, they're causing them pain.”  _ Leah sat up in the booth, nearly dropping her tablet. _ “What can you feel? What do you know?” _

“Someone’s doing  _ what _ ?!”

 

==HBA==

 

Leah was  _ mad _ .

Really, really mad.

She hadn’t been allowed to take much care of Janet, or Joey the pterodactyl. She hadn’t been allowed to care for any of the aliens that Torchwood caught in their path.

So she protected the ones she had with all her might. She watched over them, made proper feeding schedules, gave them whatever they needed to feel happier in their prisons. Sure her aunt was doing most of the practical work but that was what her aunt had ordered.

So to find out someone was hurting Janet through another of her kind?

Fuck that shit.

Fuck it hard.

Leah wished she could snag Gamora’s phone number off Captain Jack. She could get an assassination order on whoever did this.

She dismissed the idea. There was no telling if Gamora would keep the Weevil _ -ugh she hated calling them that- _ alive long enough to get it to safety.  The best hands were her own.

Yeah it meant sneaking along with the case. It meant using her bugs in any place possible. It meant letting it slide with the least suspicious amount of complaints when they sent Janet out as bait for the  _ ‘Weevil-Fight-Club’ _ . It meant having to listen to  _ Owen Harper  _ gripe about his undercover work.

Dammit. Leah always wanted to do that. Her mum had made those assignments sound so  _ cool _ .

She listened.

She researched.

She waited.

Then when she had her shot, she went straight for the nerve.

 

==HBA==

 

She was alone when the latest attack victim’s phone went off. Apparently he was so recent on their  _ ‘deceased’ _ list that they didn’t remove him from the group chat.

How lucky for Leah. 

She saw the address listed in the text. Without waiting, she rushed out of the Hub.

Arriving at the empty warehouse had been easy. Sneaking in was more difficult. Everyone in the club was a male, in their thirties to forties, and looked ready to punch Leah’s head off. So a teenage girl was gonna get noticed real quick.

She would have to sneak around the back. Place like this was sure to have a backside, service entrance or something with a lock Leah could pick. She’d been practicing for months from videos online. It had been a fun upgrade to add to her education simulations.

She went off to the back door. She couldn’t see anyone around. She snuck towards it, reaching in her bag for a kit.

“You!” A familiar voice yelled. Leah snapped to look. Sure enough, it was someone familiar. Only he wasn’t wearing a work apron, and a nice waitress wasn’t standing behind him.

“Are you kidding me?” Leah sighed at an enraged Darren. He only looked more furious now, glaring her down. The only kind of rage that came with not really understanding what was going on in your life but you knew  _ something _ was to blame. Darren seemed to be blaming the wrong thing again. “What, she broke up with you and now you’re mad at me?”

Darren growled.

Leah blinked. “Okay...guess she did.”

Darren charged. She set herself up for another attack. He pulled his fist again. Leah waited for the chance for an attack.

However, she underestimated her opponent. She was so focused on his first hand that she ignored the second. Darren lashed out with a cattle prod on her stomach. She would have cried out in pain if her entire body had clamped up. Darren left it there for a good long moment.

Ripping it away was like ripping a knife out of a wound. Leah groaned out through clenched teeth. Her whole middle was sore, she wrapped her arms around her middle. She was too slow to stop Darren from smashing the cattle prod over her head.

 

==HBA==

 

She woke up in a metal cage.

Fuck. She was slow. Being around so many humans was making her stupid. She should increase her lessons...find more to upload onto them. 

She stood up, ignoring the fencing that looked just about rusted. Whatever had happened when she blacked out had caused her to lose her shoes, and her bag. That was great. She’d liked those shoes. 

She heard men cheering, loudly. Her head hurt. So much of her hurt. Stars, it felt like something had done a 33rd Century step-dance on her stomach. 

Someone punched the fencing. Leah leaned back, looking up at the man.

It was the man Owen Harper had been working to connect with. The man suspected of taking Weevils, hurting them, of getting so many others hurt and further giving Weevils a bad name. 

Mark Lynch.

Leah sneered at him.

Behind Lynch stood Darren. Leah imagined any other fifteen year old would assume themselves in over their head. She was better than that. She was just thrown by the sheer jealousy of one human. If she hadn’t let her guard down, she would’ve wiped the floor with him.

“What should we do with her?” Darren asked.

“Well...we can’t have anybody going around flapping their gums about this place.” Lynch noted. He gave Leah a once over. She glared at him again, pulling her lips back into her most hate filled expression. “What do you know about people in the black van?”

“I shouldn’t take their candy.” Leah replied easily. 

Lynch smiled. Not an ‘I like you smile’. This smile reached his dark eyes in a way that made Leah feel uneasy. 

“She’s a fighter, Mark.” Darren supplied. Leah should’ve kicked his ass in the cafe. At least then she would’ve spared herself out of this mess. “Think she can take it.”

That uneasy smile on Lynch’s face grew. “Yeah?” Darren’s suggestion had made something clear for Lynch. An idea now sparked in his head. He turned to the crowd of men scattered around the cage. 

Leah swore. She turned around to see them all.

She saw alright.

Saw the Weevil in the cage connected to her’s. The only thing separating them was a single metal door.

She was in a Weevil Fight Club.

She’d been caught sneaking in.

Shit-shit- _ shitshit. _

“Who thinks we should let the monster take care of the party crasher?” Mark called out. All the men let out a rousing cheer. “Go on, place your bets!” He leaned towards the door to smirk at Leah. “I’ll go get our newest guest. He won’t believe our luck.”

Leah swallowed down a sassy reply. 

The Weevil behind her roared.

_ Fuck her aunt was never letting her out of the house again _

_ Captain Jack was locking her in the Hub _

_ If she survived this- as Leah herself or as Terra- she might let them. _

 

==HBA==

 

The crowd of men were cheering again. Apparently they had settled their bets on how long Leah would last against the Weevil.

Leah was fighting to keep from shaking. Her hands kept twitching whenever Weevil roared. If Darren’s cattle prod had been one of the ones to take it down, no wonder it was making her feel so sore and weak.

She wouldn’t stand a chance against it.

And these men all knew it.

_ Fucking humanity. _

Doors in the warehouse opened. Leah turned to it, seeing Harper being walked in. He recognized her immediately. The Weevil in the cage yelled, smashing his fists against the metal door separating them.

Leah jumped, but stood her ground.

The Weevil snarled her way. The crowd of men went wild.

“You missed warm up, Owen, but don’t worry. The show is just about to start!” Lynch cheered. He clapped a hand on Harper’s shoulder. “Costs a grand to enter the cage, but we made an exception for the guest. Whoever stays in the longest across the night takes home all the money. You’re next after her.”

Leah swallowed. The Weevil was still snarling. The roar of the crowd had gotten his attention, so he went out to snarl at the Fight Club members.

“She’s paying to put her life at risk?” Harper asked. “All of you are?”

Lynch laughed. “No. We caught her trying to come in round the back.” Lynch explained. “The ultimate extreme sport. Too much disposable income, not enough meaning. That’s us.”

“So what about Dan Hodges, Mark?” Harper asked.

“He wouldn’t come out. Just stood in the middle of the cage and let it maul him.” Lynch explained. “I think he got in there and he realized he didn’t want to live enough. He surrendered. None of us could get to him in time.”

“Yeah. And still you all come back.” Harper noted.

“Well, what else is there?” Lynch countered.

“This has to stop. More people are gonna die.” Harper snapped. He gave Leah once more glance for walking back the way he came.

Leah gave him the benefit of the doubt. He would come back. Of course he would. He had to. He hated Leah, that didn’t mean he would just leave her at the whims of these madmen.

Or she really hoped it didn’t.

She heard a loud buzzer go off.

Leah’s hearts raced in her chest. She forced herself to stand in her cage, refused to show all of them she was afraid. Only one thing could smell her fear, and she didn’t fear him.

The door between her and the Weevil opened. She heard the door Harper left from opening again. A glance showed Harper walking back in being guided by Lynch to watch the fight.

Great.

Great so she had a chance-

A buzz came from behind. Leah rolled her eyes.

“Best get going, doll.” Darren taunted. He turned on the cattle prod again, pushing the tip through the holes.

Leah was stuck between a rock and a hard place here. If she hid from the Weevil, she’d only be shocked. If she hid from the cattle prod, she would be locked in with the Weevil.

If she was going to fight, it would be on her terms.

Looking Harper in the eye, she took a step forward.

She had been looking at the cage for the past ten minutes. It had no roof- but the edge of the fencing had barbed wire. No way of climbing out. Any other exit would be blocked by the Weevil itself. She was calling him Buster, it suited him. 

He realized he had a new opponent. He roared at her. Leah flinched at the fierce roar, of the anger she could see in his eyes. 

He was scared too.

They had brought him in this cage.

Hurt him.

Made him fight.

Beat him.

And all of sudden, it was wrong when he fought back. They beat him worse to keep him down to let people out, she guessed. All the moving around wouldn’t have been easy on transporting him. They’d used a lot of cattle prods. She could see some of the burns on his jumpsuit.

It was breaking her hearts.

Buster lashed out at her.

Leah let it come close.

Harper flinched forward. He probably had some idea to stop the fight, to keep Chloe’s alien niece from being hurt. More out of fear from Chloe than actual morals. Leah didn’t give much care to that.

Leah held her hands up. She tilted her head, exposing her neck to Buster. He went for the easy strike. Leah grabbed his hands by the wrist.

_ They have emotional telepathy. _ She recalled in her ten minute wait before the fight.  _ They don’t have enough for proper telepathy, just feelings. He was connected in some way to Janet.  _

She made quick work in pushing in her feelings. Her fear and understanding of his. She sent feelings of peace and goodwill. She projected so much calm that on a human she’d give them a high.

_ I see you _ She told Buster, using only the resources she had in her reach _ I see you and understand you. They are hurting you. They are hurting me too. I will not fight for them. I will not fight you. I care about you too much. _

She thought about Janet. She thought about the poor Weevil sitting alone in the Torchwood cells for long before Leah had come. She projected thoughts about that Weevil, reaching towards Buster to see if he could remember her by feeling alone.

_ I’m a friend to your kind. _ She promised it.  _ I swear it. I won’t let them hurt you anymore. I swear it. _

Buster relaxed in her hold. The crowd of men let out loud shouts of displeasure, annoyance. Leah didn’t care. She only cared about getting the Weevil out of here safe. Everything else came secondary. 

_ ‘Right and Harper...should remember him too.’ _

The cage opened behind her. Leah slipped out from Buster’s mind, letting go of his wrists. The Weevil was silent as she took a protective stance in front of him. 

Harper was walking in.

“What the hell, Harper?” Leah hissed. “Get out.”

Instead, Harper was staring at the Weevil over Leah’s head. “How’d you get it to stop?”

“I was kind.” Leah answered back in a snap.

Harper didn’t seem to agree. “Come on then. Let’s see how long that ‘kindness’ lasts.” He taunted her.

No. Not her.

Buster standing behind her.

“No.” Leah turned to it. “No don’t-”

She didn’t get the chance to calm him down. The doors to the warehouse were thrown open again. Leah heard gunshots go off. 

Buster pushed Leah to the side, sending her to the ground. Buster charged at Harper as the crowd began to scatter.

“Stop!” Leah pleaded. “Stop it!”

She saw Captain Jack running in with Gwen. 

“OWEN! LEAH!” Gwen yelled as she ran to the door.

“Gwen!” Leah ran to the door. Harper screamed. It made Leah stop. She turned, seeing Buster had tackled Owen to the ground. “Stop!”

“Leah stand back!” Captain Jack warned.

“Don’t hurt it!” Leah pleaded.

Captain Jack hesitated. Then he fired the gun.

It hit Buster in the arm. He cried out in pain, rolling off Harper. She ran to his side, letting herself reach out to him in his mind again. Buster welcomed her. She kept her projected emotions clear and calming, trying her best to keep the Weevil sedated.

She heard Gwen ordering Lynch to open the cage. Leah let the world fade out from behind her, focusing on keeping Buster calm.

Something shocked her back.

“Stars dammit Darren!” Leah snarled. Pulling herself out of Buster’s mind, she growled at the man. Darren raised the cattle prod towards her.

“I wouldn’t.” Captain Jack warned. He kept his gun level at Darren. “Not if you like that hand.”

“Help me, Jack, Leah. Help me get him out.” Gwen pleaded. 

Leah was still glaring at Darren.

“We can arrest him later.” Captain Jack told Leah. “Promise. You can slap the cuffs on yourself. Let’s get Owen first.”

Leah agreed to be moved, if only so she could glare at Darren as she walked.

She reached for one of Harper’s arms.

“Stay away from me!” Harper snarled.

She held up her arms. She had only been trying to help. She  _ had _ been helping- she was trying to keep Buster off Harper. He was the one that stepped into the cage.

Captain Jack stepped in. He took Harper’s other arm. “Owen, come on.”

“Get a stretcher.” Lynch called out.

Leah walked out from the cage. She sneered at Lynch as she walked past him.

A stretcher was brought out for Harper. Captain Jack and Gwen moved him onto it. Leah spotted Chloe, Ianto, and Toshiko around the crowd, keeping them all from escaping. Leah ignored the look her aunt was definitely giving her.

She walked to the cage barrier, watching as Buster held his bleeding arm. She walked around the cage to the spot closest to Buster. He didn’t flinch at her approach.

“You did this to him.” Captain Jack snapped at Lynch, while Gwen wheeled

“He did it to himself. He had no fear.” Lynch excused.

“And the girl?” Captain Jack countered. “What about her?”

Lynch had no answer for that.

Leah pushed her fingers into the cage. She brushed her fingertips against his head. Buster let out a keening whine. His thoughts were full of fear and pain.

_ I know. _

_ You don’t have to be scared anymore. _

_ I swear. _

“It’s over now. These creatures are to be left alone. Go back to your lives.” Captain Jack told the crowd that had just been cheering for Leah to be slaughtered on the stones.

_ He is keeping them from reaching you. _ Leah promised, trying to send thoughts that would go with that.  _ They won’t come for you anymore. _

Buster whined.

The cage door closed.

Leah looked up. “Captain.”

Captain Jack turned. Leah saw Lynch walking into the cage. She kept herself in Buster’s mind, pushing thoughts of calm and peace into him.

“What’re you doing?” Captain Jack asked him.

“It’s over.” Lynch answered. He stared down Buster.

Buster growled. _ Vengeance _ He pushed at Leah.  _ Want. Vengeance. Hurt. Pain. Always pain. Want to hurt. Want to hunt. Vengeance! _

Leah understood that desire. She understood being held captive, being hurt over and over again at the whims of those that thought themselves better than you. She had dreamt for so long about giving it to that Torchwood One team, the one that made every day of her life the past two years nothing but an everlasting nightmare.

She understood it.

But she also remembered all those screams that day. All those agents being converted, changed into something no longer human. She had wanted her pain to stop. She hadn’t wanted them to suffer a fate like that.

_ He’s not worth it. _ Leah projected to Buster.  _ You are better than he is. You are not a monster. He is. Don’t prove him right. _

Buster snarled at Lynch. The man was standing his ground, waiting for death. “Go on.” He ordered in the silence. “Fight me!”

Buster stayed with Leah.

Captain Jack fired his gun.

Lynch fell to the ground, dead.

Leah sent thoughts of praise and happiness to Buster. He was free now. He was never coming back into this cage.

And...and neither was she.

 

==HBA==

 

Harper had been let out of the hospital in a few days.

Leah was being let out of the Hub when she turned 30...

Chloe had ranted and yelled at her until Leah was certain she was going to go hoarse. Leah had told the team that Darren had attacked her because of a stupid fight, a believable lie to the rest. Chloe and Captain Jack weren’t fooled.

When Chloe finished her rant, Leah stood in the cells with Captain Jack. They had found Janet and other Weevils, bringing their favorite Weevil back home. 

Leah pushed her finger into the cage holding Buster. The Weevil keened- setting off a chain as the other Weevils keened with him. He brushed the side of his head against Leah’s hand. She smiled at the feelings coming off from his head.

Captain Jack watched it all with a thoughtful look on his face. 

“You going to scold me?” Leah asked, slipping out from the Weevil mindlink. “Like my aunt?”

“Did it work from her?” Captain Jack asked.

Leah smiled. Captain Jack smiled back, laughing.

“You won’t do it again.” Captain Jack replied.

“Oh definitely not. I’m never breaking into a Weevil Fight Club again.” Everything else must be on a case-by-case basis. “They didn’t even follow the rules of Fight Club as I know them.”

Captain Jack seemed to see her loophole. “Right. Everyone knows you gotta respect the rules.”

Leah grinned at him. She glanced at the cages, her smile falling. “When I was in the cage-”

“You don’t have to talk about it.” Captain Jack told her.

“I want to.” Leah insisted. Captain Jack nodded, encouraging her to say her peace. “When I was in there...I felt what he wanted. I could read his emotions. He wanted to hurt Lynch, get back at all the pain he’d caused him. I understood what it was like. They never set up a fight club, but the other Torchwood had me fighting a lot.”

Captain Jack stayed quiet. He hadn’t heard about Leah’s time in that other Torchwood. Any records were no doubt lost in the Battle of Canary Wharf, or had been labelled so classified that not even Captain Jack could reach them. Or maybe he purposefully avoided them, in respect to her.

“I’m never going to be in a Torchwood cage again...am I?” Leah asked him.

Captain Jack shook his head. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

A weight fell off Leah at hearing that. She was so sure...had been so sure for so long...the idea of not ever going back seemed like a dream too good to be true. But it was real. Captain Jack was many things, only he never went back on his word. He always did exactly as he said he would.

She wouldn’t go back in the cage.

Not ever again.

She reached her fingers out to Buster again. The Weevil accepted the touch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot stress this enough, I’m writing in a mad panic to finish this before Utopia comes out in Rebels of the Fallen.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes. This story will be in the Torchwood-verse.  
> Let me explain a few things:  
> This a side-story to my Fallen Star Series. Read Child of Nowhere or The Tenth Impact if you want details. Because this story will make little sense without that.  
> Leah is a Time Lady. That’s a known fact from the start of this fic. She was banished from Gallifrey, found by Leanna and Thelma Luna-Johnson. She was abducted by Torchwood a few months before the events of Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. Her aunt, Chloe Johnson, will be another OC in this fic.  
> Get ready, folks. I don’t pull any punches where my characters are concerned.  
> AuthorA97’s Law: If a character can get whump, give them whump.


End file.
